By Jack Shanley
Deep End is about British culture in London when the optimism of the “Swinging Sixties” started to fade. It’s a fantastic film that delves into the perspective of a young boy named Mike (John Moulder-Brown) and his obsession with not just women but essentially one woman in a coworker named Susan (Jane Asher). There is this infatuation that grows to pure obsession that I can’t help but get lost in. For me most of the truly great and rather interesting films all delve into the topic of obsession. It’s this mentality that someone is so focused on something or someone for instance that it becomes compulsive as they lose control of their emotions and never is it more evident than in Skolimowski’s Deep End. Most movies from the 70s showed the 60s as a bubble of shining positive thinking and star-studded youth developments. Skolimowski reveals the dark side of young peoples lives, how their lives are not important, and a sexual desire. Mike throughout the movie thinks about investigating the broken life and relationship of Susan, but it leads to his pure frustration getting him nowhere. When watching the film, you spend a lot of time taking in all the gorgeousness Skolimowski has on offer. His use of texture is fantastic. There is an amazing scene, towards the end of the movie, where Mike and Susan are lying on a bed of towels and sheets that are placed in such a way to foreshadow an underwater swirling effect seen later in the film The director’s diligence is amazing. The costumes in this film are also excellent. Deep End is a remarkably interesting movie. It is surprising that Skolimowski’s movie was not a big success at the time, although the studio didn’t promote it well enough. It’s a film that holds up to this day as an underrated classic. In all truth I’d recommend checking out Deep End and see what you think of it, I shall give it a score of Five Stars. You can buy Deep End for €10 on eBay. Director Jerzy Skolimowski – Rating: R – Genre: Romance/Comedy – Run Time: 1h 30m Language: English. For more film content please follow @movies4fanatics on Instagram.