Review #287: 'Deep End' (1970)

A British oddity (released through BFI's flipside series), written and directed by Polish emigre, 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 fiance. 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 fiance, 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 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.


Directed by: Jerzy Skolimowski
Starring: Jane Asher, John Moulder-Brown, Christopher Sandford, Diana Dors
Country: West Germany/UK

Rating: ***

Marc Ivamy