Deep End (1970)

Best movie ever!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I assumed this was a foreign film I found listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, it was directed by Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski, but it had elements of West German production, but it is a certainly a British set story, and one that sounded interesting. Basically fifteen year old Michael 'Mike' (John Moulder-Brown) has just left school, and finds himself a job at the local swimming pool and public baths, being trained by Susan (BAFTA nominated Jane Asher) who is ten years older than him but he cannot help but find her attractive. He finds that working at the bathhouse has more than just cleaning going on, he is being tipped to provide more services to clients of a more sexual nature, this includes his first lady client (Diana Dors) who is stimulated pushing his face into her bosom and talking about football suggestively, Susan explains that this tipping is normal practice, and that many of the clients ask for the opposite sex for their tips. Mike falls for Susan, despite the fact that she has a fiancé (Christopher Sandford), there is a night when he follows them into the cinema and an adult movie, sitting behind them and him touching her breasts, the fiancé goes to tell the manager and the police are maybe going to question him, but Susan kisses him and is amused, she and the fiancé do not press charges, the police instead allege a minor being allowed into an X rated movie, and the fiancé tries to get revenge before the police intrude. Mike later finds out that Susan is cheating on her fiancé with a swimming instructor (Karl Michael Vogler), who was also Mike's former physical eduction teacher, in jealous anger Mike breaks a fire alarm and cuts his hand, and he is curious to see what is going on between her and the fiancé. So one night he goes to the club he heard she would be, he avoids being spotted and hangs around the erotic area, buying many hot dogs from the salesman (Burt Kwouk), but also he finds a cardboard cutout of a girl, and it looms just like Susan, so he steals it, and hides with leg cast wearing prostitute Beata (Louise Martini) until the coast is clear, and eventually after ages of waiting he confronts Susan on the underground, she neither confirms or denies the image is of her exposing herself. Following a night where Mike swims naked in the swimming pool, with the cardboard cutout, he is angry again and blows the P.E. teacher's car tyres with broken glass, Susan confronts him and they talk in the park, but when she slaps him her diamond from her engagement rings falls into the snow, so he helps her by scooping the area of snow it would have dropped into plastic bags. They take the snow to the public baths, and with the swimming pool drained he lowers the ceiling lamp to use for electricity to connect a kettle and melt the snow, while he continues the melting in the empty pool, she makes the P.E. teacher walk away upset, not just because of the punctured car tyres, but she says that she borrowed the car keys and lost them as well. Mike finds the diamond, and lies naked in the empty swimming pool holding the stone on his tongue, she is given back the diamond and is about to leave, but she undresses as well and lies with him, they talk and make amends, she tries to leave but Mike wants her to stay, unaware they are there the attendant starts filling the swimming pool, and in anger at her trying to leave Mike hits Susan with the lamp in the back of the head, she falls unconscious into the water, he embraces her while they are still naked. I agree with critics, this is one of the strangest films that was made during the Swinging Sixties, it incorporates many of the aspects of the period, especially with the sexuality of the characters, the setting of the dank and grotty bath house is interesting, the acting is as good as you can get, there are some good funny moments, especially during the constant hot dog buying scene, but also the dark and surreal stuff to, but it is all of it's time and a watchable drama. Very good!

Jerzy Skolimowski's cult classic now restored to its former beauty is certainly one to treasure. Most of the film was shot in Munich, though this is very much about Britain in the 70s. Actors like Diana Dors playing a character who fantasises about football while having sex, Jane Asher as a flirty young madam in a mini skirt and good old Burt Kwouk selling hot dogs. Along the way it confirms that many of the best films about Britain (Blow Up, Cul De Sac, The Ruling Class) are made by Johnny Foreigner. With its primary colours, careful compositions and sharply angled photography it doesn't look British. Even the soundtrack is from the Teutonic legend known as Can. It all melds wonderfully to produce a telling snapshot of the period, and a lot more besides

Deep End is so true to Life - for any teenage boy who becomes infatuated with an older (but young and sensual) woman who he then sees romantically with a chauvinistic and nasty man - he wants to 'save' her.But where any of us ordinary young men would have long stopped their pursuance of justice, young Mike here takes things to the very end, fulfilling the dreams of us mere mortals. You know all along that he'll never get the girl, that's never in any doubt, but the madness as is pushes him further into trouble.That Mike's (John Moulder-Brown) 15 and just out of school and his first boss is the gorgeous and sexually aware Jane Asher and his job entails attending to allsorts at some public baths, including some randy older women, no wonder his hormones are all over the place.It all starts out as light-hearted nonsense (the incorrigible Diana Dors scene a real hoot) but gradually gets darker, to a jet black and tragic end. The ending is one of the most profound and well mounted that I've witnessed and every frame of it perfectly staged.In between, we have the fumblings of a sexually naive lad, he who gets his first pay packet and it goes to his head, finding that the bright lights of a (pretend, film was shot in Munich) Soho turn his few pounds to mere pennies as he goes from club to club. But, all he's actually doing is stalking the girl that he works with, as he sees how her 'other', more glamorous life, away from the bleach and rubber gloves at the baths, is both lived - and funded.True, John Moulder-Brown's acting lacks depth, or finesse, but imagine a 15 year old actually in those scenarios. He'd be even more blunt and less eloquent that Mike is in this.As others have said, this is a true little gem of a film. How so much was actually said about human emotion in such a relatively short film is extraordinary. There were a few really good movies around at that time that covered similar-ish ground (Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom", for example) that weren't appreciated fully then, but seen perhaps as novelty voyeuristic films, only for the 'specialist' viewer. And, of course, thanks to the BFI for restoring it to a crystal-clear and beautiful print.

What starts out as a tender coming-of-age story devolves into a story of sexual obsession and missed connections in "Deep End." The story has bicycle riding teenager Mike starting his first job at a run-down public bathhouse which caters to both men and women. There is also an Olympic sized pool in the facility, which is utilized by scores of teenage girls. Mike's pretty but jaded coworker Susan is on hand to show him the ropes, and soon their mild flirtation begins to prompt Mike into increasingly bizarre stalker behavior.The cinematography here is outstanding, with every stain, crack and spot of dirt in the grimy bathhouse evident. It certainly appears to be a place where any sensible person would hesitate to walk barefoot through, and the sets are loaded with strange signage and bizarre props. The exterior locations are expertly filmed also, and give a great impression of the U.K. at the end of the 1960's.The acting of the two young leads is top-notch and utterly believable at all turns, with John Moulder-Brown especially likable and appealing. And certainly special mention must be made to former glamor girl Diana Dors as a blowzy blond bathhouse patron with a sexual fixation on football. She holds nothing back in her cameo appearance, and she's fantastic in the limited screen time devoted to her physically aggressive and domineering character.Some objection could be made to the somewhat speedy manner in which Mike's character transforms from nice teenager into obsessed stalker. Some of this didn't seem too believable, although Asher as Susan is beautiful enough to almost make it work. Mike begins the film as such a sweet young guy who's concerned about his future and his family, that's it's almost unfathomable as to why he'd go off the "deep end" like he does.*** out of *****