Deep End (1971)

Directed by: Jerzy Skolimowski | 88 minutes | drama, comedy, romance | Actors: Jane Asher, John Moulder-Brown, Karl Michael Vogler, Christopher Sandford, Diana Dors, Louise Martini, Erica Beer, Anita Lochner, Anne-Marie Kuster, Cheryl Hall, Christine Paul-Podlasky, Dieter Eppler, Karl Ludwig Lindt, Eduard Linkers, Will Danin, Gerald Rowland, Burt Kwouk, Ursula Mellin, Uli Steigberg, Erika Wackernagel, Peter Martin Urtel, Sean Barry-Weske, Jerzy Skolimowski

A 1971 film set during London’s ‘The Swinging Sixties’ period? Is it not dated after forty years and still worth seeing? Don’t hesitate for a moment: ‘Deep End’ by Jerzy Skolimowski has been re-released in a restored version and still completely contemporary, surprising and absolutely worth it. ‘Deep End’ is a slightly bizarre story full of absurdist humour: a layered screenplay, comedy and bittersweet drama all at once.

The events largely take place in a public bathhouse. Mike (John Moulder Brown), young and still a little blue, finds his first job as a sidekick after graduating from school. His colleague Susan (Jane Asher) introduces him to the idiosyncrasies of his field and has him – lucratively – wash the backs of older women, a job that earns him tips if they are satisfied with the way he does his job.

Susan is a seasoned, free-spirited pretty redhead, who has several relationships at the same time and who sometimes gives the male visitors to the bath a little extra attention and care. She plays her game with gusto and pleasure.

Mike is fifteen and still a rookie and in the bathhouse has to deal with women who think he’s a nice young thing. We see a line of characters passing by, from older women to young schoolgirls. Does it sound a bit raunchy and smell like a cheap sex comedy? That would really be a misconception. As developments progress, the undertone becomes more serious.

Special mention deserves the contribution of Diana Dors (an English sex bomb like Marilyn Monroe at the time). Can’t Blonde Sex Bombs Act? Diana proves otherwise. Her portrayal of the role of a mature and luscious lady is memorable. She plays delightfully and with a lot of humor. She presses the inexperienced Mike to her bosom and tries to seduce him, the passionate football fan, with fantasy and titillating football terms and thus make him ‘score’.

However, Mike is completely focused on Susan. Despite their difference in life experience, he irrevocably falls for her, but she plays her own cat-and-mouse game and coolly lets him do her favors without even giving him anything more than a finger. With intense and more obsessive feelings, he begins to shadow her and thwart her various relationships. Entertaining is a hilarious chase through a sex cinema and an expensive nightclub where Susan attracts and repels him again and again. Mike must and will ‘conquer’ her and goes further and further…

Jane Asher and John Moulder Brown’s play is convincing. The soundtrack with music by Cat Stevens and Can provides strong support to the visually strong ‘Deep End’. The chosen locations perfectly reflect the era; the drab and drab entertainment center SOHO from the time of the sex shops and seedy nightclubs, the run-down and shabby bathhouse with its hideous changing rooms and old baths, shabby porn clubs, etcetera. The film convincingly and at the same time subtly pokes fun at the prudish and narrow sexual morality of the English at the time.

‘Deep End’ fully deserves its re-release. Enjoying this masterpiece that is by no means obsolete. A film of this quality with absurdist undertones brimming with irony deserves a special ending. Of course we won’t give that away, but director Skolimowsky certainly succeeded. That ending is not only surprising, but cinematographically beautifully designed. A real gem for cinema lovers!