jovana-13676 The road to hell is paved with comic situations. This film doesn't seem acted at all, it's more like setting up a camera while things happen, which enhances the atmosphere of aloofness. The actors seem free to improvise - that may or may not really be the case, but their acting seems free of constraint. The blue of the pool, the yellow raincoat and the red paint that spills in the end remind me of Godard's Contempt (1963) which also has a similar plot and ending - it's focused on rejection. The boy actor reminds me of the young Roman Polanski and Jane Asher still looks like a teenager, so her character's immaturity doesn't come across as weird. Legal age doesn't make people mature anyway - that's the point that Diana Dors demonstrates so well while smothering the boy. Now, the question remains - did they really need Burt Kwouk in this film just to sell hot dogs?

Neil Welch Young Mike, fresh out of school and somewhat unworldly, gets his first job in a seedy public baths and swimming bath in an unnamed part of London. Showing him the ropes is Susan, a strikingly lovely redhead in her mid-20s, and well-versed in her abilities to make a few bob on the side from the, er, ancillary services which can be offered. Mike falls for Susan, hook line and sinker and Susan, well aware of this, derives some amusement from leading him on, little realising just how serious it is for him.I saw this film a couple of times when it came out in 1970 and, now it has reappeared, it is interesting to watch it with eyes which are now nearly 60, and not 18. It is essentially a rather seedy kitchen sink drama, told with some humour and, ultimately tragedy.At its heart are two performances. As Mike, John Moulder-Brown has the right fish-out-of-water look as the obsessed adolescent who hasn't got a clue but, for me, his performance never really convinces. However, as Susan, Jane Asher is a revelation. She made a successful transition from child to adult acting but then never seemed to pursue an adult screen career with commitment. On the strength of Deep End, this is a great loss: Susan, not a very nice person, is nonetheless nuanced with a multitude of emotional shades, and Asher is stunningly good.

tomgillespie2002 A British oddity (released through BFI's flipside series), written and directed by Polish émigré, Jerzy Skolimowski (whose previous work included the screenplay for Roman Polanski's masterful Knife in the Water (1962)), Deep End is a story of naive obsession. 15 year old Mike (John Moulder-Brown), takes a job in a typical Victorian, city bathhouse in London. The brooding, awkward teenager falls for Susan (Jane Asher), a beautiful redheaded attendant, with a colourful secret life, and a fiancé. His obsession with her increases and he begins following her outside of work. In this act he falls upon a life-sized cardboard cut- out of Susan outside a strip club in the red-light district of Soho.Whilst the film is primarily a marginally twisted drama, there are some intentionally funny scenes that elevate the narrative. A stand out moment in the bathhouse has Mike trapped in a room with Diana Dors' lady client, who coaxes him and pulls the unnerved child to her breasts, asking if he likes football, and then chanting "Georgie Best". Mike follows Susan and her fiancé, Chris (Christopher Sandford), into a cinema and sits behind them. In a moment of tactless teenage bravura, Mike grabs Susan's breast, and her reaction is to complain and press charges as the police arrive. Mike's futile stalking of Susan inevitably leads him to her secret world, which he does not favour, confronting her with the aforementioned two-dimensional replica of the topless Susan, demanding that she justify these occupations.There is a coming-of-age narrative imbued in this film, with elements that many will recognise such as the inherent awkwardness that is teenage existence. And as our protagonist is male, he is therefore has a deeply bungling nature, his hormones seething. The scale with which Mike's obsession with Susan becomes is bordering on the nature of John Fowles's Frederick Clegg character in his novel The Collector. He steals that Susan cardboard replica, throwing it into the swimming pool he stands over her floating duplicate on a diving board. A dive and sensual swim with it is reflected in the closing, relatively haunting closing images. An interesting, sometimes funny, but not altogether exciting piece of cinema.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

aimless-46 I first saw "Deep End" shortly after its release, it played at the base theater during my Air Force days. Films on base ran for only one day (three shows) and this was one of a handful that drew capacity crowds to the later shows due to "word of mouth" praise by those who attended the first screening. I finally got the opportunity to view it again last week and was not disappointed. About all I recalled from my long ago first viewing was the Jane Asher full-size cardboard stand-up and the color red. Meaning that director Jerzy Skolimowski managed to create some powerful imagery that stayed in my mind over all those years, which is more than I can say for a lot of films. My association of the color red now makes perfect sense as that was obviously the imagery that Skolimowski meant to drill into each viewer's mind. From Asher's red hair (in the film itself and in the promotional poster where it trails off into blood), to the new color being painted on the walls of the bathhouse, to the blood that punctuates certain climatic moments in the story.Skolimowski was Polanski's screenwriter for "Knife In the Water" and stylistically "Deep End" has a Polanski flavor (it certainly has its "Repulsion" moments). I was also reminded of a Judy Geeson film from about the same time "Goodbye Gemini" (1970); a London setting and a doomed pair of mismatched lovers. If you are looking for a more useful comparison think of a bizarre marriage of "The Summer of 42" (1971) and "Play Misty For Me" (1971). But "Deep End" is too grounded to be overwrought; its romantic obsession - coming of age story rings surprisingly true. Probably because the gritty is evenly blended with the abstract in a storyline that nicely cuts between accidental and destined. Just out of school, 15 year-old Mike (John Moulder-Brown) goes to work as the towel boy at a seedy London bath house. Asher plays Sue, an older co-worker who reveals that some of the clientèle are good for extra money in exchange for titillation in the private rooms. In an extraordinary scene an aging Diana Dors explores Mike's interest in football (soccer). Sue is a mega-tease; she is stringing along a rich fiancée, having regular private sessions with one of Mike's former teachers, servicing assorted clients at the baths, and getting her perverse kicks turning on Mike. Sue is not atypical in her level of irresponsibility and Mike is not atypical in his level of naiveté. Stuff like this plays out everyday. But Mike's obsession begins to get a bit twisted when he first realizes that Sue and his former teacher have a relationship. And Skolimowski goes from broken mirror to ripped poster to broken glass to blood; substituting visual images for overwrought melodrama. Glass (mirror, fire alarm, diamond, light bulb) substitutes for Mike's fragile psyche and distorted perception, pictures (the PSA poster on the bulletin board and the cut-out girl Mike steals) substitute for a normal boy-girl relationship, and paint and hair substitute for blood. "Deep End" is a film in motion, it never slows down and its scene transitions run from excellent to lame. I don't remember the theatrical showing well enough to say whether the version I just watched was intact. But I suspect that it has been hacked up and trimmed, which would explain the more inexplicable scene transitions. There is some support for this notion in that it has been converted into a 4-3 aspect ratio and has lost all the end credits except a few bars of the same Cat Stevens song that ran over the opening titles. If it ever gets a DVD release I hope they can find a better example to digitize. The best way to understand it is to be open to the interplay of Skolimowski's images, these provide the texture of his film. The story may appear to be being told from Mike's point of view but it is the texture that allows the viewer to go beneath the surface of the deep end and to see the dance between love and death. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.