O Ato Final

Okay, here's a cine-challenge. There are some films that take you back to a particular time in your life at absolute warp speed. Frequently, these films are reasonably universal, but their associations might be obfuscated, personal and subjective, never understood even by your friends unless explained. One such film, which chronicled absolute obsessive teenage love and its destructiveness was a wake-up call to a frequent, formerly obsessive type, myself in my misspent youth. This and the film's innate mastery instantly time-travel me back to days that were simultaneously more innocent and more complicated than today, late night smoky college discussions in a candle-lit apartments.

And that film would be "Deep End" directed by Jerzy Skowlimowski, pal of Roman Polanski, with the same great mix of bizarre sensibilities and takes on life, done in professional, Hollywood-caliber production, even if on an indie budget.

It's from 1970, featuring music by Cat Stevens (Yusef Islam now to the non-infidel) and two unbelievably strong leads: a 15-year-old John Moulder Brown and 25-year-old Jane Asher (Paul McCartney's 1960's trophy girlfriend.) I never even knew Asher had these acting chops: she outdoes Susan Sarandon (similar upper class background) for letting us in on the nuances of a naturally pretty, fairly low-class young person. Moulder-Brown was the go-to kid for late 60's/early 70's films that required a teen to actually act. (Both are still working, happily.)

This is a dance of death pas de deux between a teen boy working at a grimy public pool in Britain, all hormones and eagerness, and his slightly older female co-worker, who's both a beauty and a inveterate tease. These two should never have been allowed to work together, as he quickly fixates on her, stalks her, and she tries to control the situation with her normal, over the top sexual flirting. It's pretty light and entertaining for a while, then it goes south. . . The title is "Deep End," after all. I've rarely seen a such a disturbing, creepy film about young lust that still has you rooting for everyone involved, no matter how wrongly they both behave. That's the sign of a sure cinematic touch.

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 *****

A teenage boy's first job is as an attendant who brings towels and other items to an odd clientele at a public bath house that is equipped with what appears to be an olympic sized swimming pool. He immediately falls for his co-worker, a young woman in her twenties, who leads him on a bit out of fun, and even has some sexual interest in him as we see in one scene when she spies him putting his pants on. While she remains detached he goes from infatuation to obsession, following her and her fiancé around town after hours. However the more important action occurs in the bathhouse which looks run-down and is photographed in its drabby and richly dark colors. The place itself is as as much importance as are the two main characters, the boy who is coming of age and the object of his obsession, his pretty young co-worker. In an ideal setting things would have been different, but here the decrepit bathhouse seems to influence the events in a darker and mildly disturbing way. Within it occurs the film's climax, in the pool, with the two of them, his obsession,and her sexy acquiesence, leading to the ending that makes this a movie that you may not always think about, but probably won't forget.

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.

I finally saw this film, remembering it from one of my cult movie books I acquired a long time ago. Always meant to get around to seeing it.

This is a strange film about a young teen boy who is "coming of age" as it were, and fumbling about with his hormones and a major crush in cloudy, dreary London.

His crush in on Susan, one of those disaffected types that works at a "bath house" where he manages to find employment. The manager tells him upon his hire, "work hard, and you might find yourself behind this desk someday!"--as if that were a good thing--while he chuckles and exposes his rotting teeth. Certainly a bit of a metaphor there.

Susan likes to tease the kid, Mike, and other men as well. She shows him the ropes at the pool house, and suggests he "plays along" with some of the female clients in the private baths, to get extra tips. Susan does the same, going a bit further than just playing around.

Susan's sexy teasings lead Mike to have a dangerous infatuation with her, which leads to some bad places.

At the same time, we are introduced to all sorts of characters, none of who are good. It seems everyone is sex charged, in negative ways; a pervy "coach" who likes little girls, Diana Dors thrown in there as an orgasmic patron, sex workers, even a young school colleague of Mike's who wants to have sex with him in her bath. You may ask yourself, what's in the water at this place?

And speaking of this place, for me, the star of this movie is the creaking, grotesque bath house. Shabby and run down, it is exactly the place you would NOT want to get naked and have a bath at. You get the impression that even the water is dirty. I have always had a bit of a phobia of large, indoor bodies of water, and if you feel the same, you will be haunted by this movie. There is a creepy, gigantic pool, which for some odd reason has a cluster of huge steel spotlights hanging above it. Every hallway, every bath is decrepit and falling apart. It looks like something that survived-barely-the bombing of London, so someone bought it on the cheap and made it a bath house. Yech.

What starts as an odd, intriguing film runs out of steam 1/2 way through. The more Mike is obsessed with Susan, the less interesting the whole thing becomes.