Polish expat director/actor Jerzy Skolimowski’s vision of “swinging London” from 1970, Deep End—at least from the working class point of view—at first appears to be a simple “coming-of-age” film, but what seems to many as a completely inexplicable ending begs the question of how we got there. It certainly confused Roger Ebert, who thought the film deserved a “better ending.” Although interest in the film was revived after the British Film Institute released it on Blu-Ray in 2011, there still seems to be some question about what it is supposed to mean.
Deep End is set in London and although there are British actors in lead roles, Skolimowski could only obtain financing for the film in West Germany, in exchange for doing most of its filming there, as well as hiring German actors for the peripheral roles, to be dubbed later by English-speakers. The reason why it was difficult to get this film made in Britain (save for the scenes in the swimming pool and a seedy red-light district) seems to be because its peculiarly eastern European sensibility only played well on the continent. Deep End is indeed a hard film to pin down, since while with hindsight we realize that it contains “clues” that will “explain” what happens at the end—yet even then the ending still comes as disturbing and somehow out-of-place for many viewers.
In the opening credits we see the camera roll down the frame of a red bicycle, which is being ridden by a 15-year-old boy named Michael (John Moulder-Brown). Over the credits is a song sung by Cat Stevens, “But I Might Die Tonight,” which sets a tone for a dead-end working-class existence. Michael has dropped out of school and has been hired as a bath attendant at a rather decrepit public bath house that also has a very large indoor public swimming pool. The manager tells him if he works hard, his “future” may be sitting behind the manager’s desk. The manager looks to be 60, and we will see that the only other employees is the female attendant, the cashier and the maintenance man. Unexplained is why the previous male attendant quit, but as the film progresses we have our suspicions as to why.
Next we encounter Susan (Jane Asher), who is instructed to explain Michael’s duties. Susan is older and more experienced than Michael; she looks him over in a way that suggests she is critiquing his sexual potential; this attraction is confirmed when she calls to him as “Hey, handsome.” The viewer may be allowed to wonder why an attractive and worldly woman like Susan would be working in such a place, basically doing a janitor’s work.
However, Susan intimates that in this job there is the potential to earn substantial tips; these services include those done for women “of a certain age” who favor “obliging young boys” as well as for “some gentlemen.” The prospect of attending women startles Michael, since he assumes that he is working only in the men’s section; but Susan assures him it is only for allowing them to “imagine things.” One wonders what exactly occurs in these “bath” rooms, since some of the customers write graffiti on the walls, usually of a sexual nature. As she instructs Michael on his cleaning duties, Susan tells him “don’t believe everything you read. In here, they are all supermen.”
So what exactly is the game here? The frumpy, painted-up blonde cashier answers a phone, and someone wants to speak to Susan. The cashier is envious of Susan’s attractiveness to men, and purposely hangs up the phone just as Susan arrives to answer. Who is it? “A man, of course.”
So besides providing janitorial services we suspect there is “attending” to the secret fantasies of clients—and in the case of Susan sexual services, in exchange for tips. The cashier’s reaction to the call suggests that it is from someone who is checking on Susan’s “availability.” Susan’s unconcerned attitude about her “work” suggests someone for whom providing sexual favors is just a “job”—especially when we discover that she has a fiancé, Chris (Christopher Sandford).
Michael, on the other hand, is
sexually inexperienced and naïve about the world that Susan inhabits, and Susan
continuously toys with his mind. It doesn’t take long to discover just what
exactly is going on there behind the manager’s back but is an open secret to
the everyone else. The gym teacher from the local school has brought a class of
teenage girls to the swimming pool; Susan pulls Michael aside and persuades him
to “sub” for her while another woman is waiting to be “attended”; once he
agrees, we see Susan and the gym teacher exchange glances. It is all "ready."
Michael “attends” to an older, rather corpulent woman (Diana Dors), who firsts asks him to assist her in undoing her bra, which he is too embarrassed to do. We see the gym teacher again, this time having “fun” with the female students in their bathing outfits. He seems to be quite popular with the girls. Susan appears and asks him sarcastically if he is having a “good time.”
Later Dors summons Michael for an “emergency,” which turns out to be one of those “imaginings.” Dors manhandles the unwilling Michael, burying his head into her bosom and then between her legs while having an apparent orgasmic fantasy about British soccer player George Best. She tosses Michael aside after she has her “orgasm.”
Susan convinces the unwilling Michael to take 10 “bob” from the woman—at the time, slang for 10 shillings, which seems to be a considerable amount to them, although one “bob” was the equivalent of a U.S. nickel. Michael’s parents then arrive for a bath. Susan isn’t particularly impressed, derisively calling Michael a “momma’s boy.”
The next day they are having lunch in the swimming area as if nothing had happened; Susan has her hair done-up initially, and it is worth remembering this particular hairdo, since we will see it again under much more serious conditions.
Some of Michael’s former classmates are there to take a swim, and they inquire if he and Susan have gotten it on, like they’ve heard she has done with other men. Michael doesn’t care for the insinuation and tussles with the boys in the water, which Susan finds amusing. Next we see Susan peaking lasciviously at the naked Michael while he’s putting on his clothes, which the maintenance man had put over a hot pipe to dry.
That night as they are leaving, the maintenance man warns Michael about her: “Do you know how many men have laid her?” The insinuation is that it is “a lot.”
Susan is hard to pin down psychologically; she can be considerate or cruel, flirtatious or emasculating, at any moment. The next day in response to a poster that shows a “pregnant” man, Susan asks Michael if he would be more “careful” if he was pregnant. We have learned by now that Michael isn’t very imaginative; given his working class background and lack of interest in school, his worldview is limited to what he sees on the surface. He only finds it ludicrous to even suggest it, since a man can’t get pregnant. Susan presses him on the matter, and Michael sheepishly confesses that he can’t be “more careful,” because of his lack sexual experience. This seems to surprise the sexually-experienced Susan, who starts fondling his head as if he was a little boy; of course he wants to have sex, but he isn’t like those “other people.”
Susan notes that he always goes all “silly” when they talk about anything sexual. We first think that Susan is about to ask him if he would “fancy” having sex with her, but she pauses and suggest the frumpy cashier with her “voluptuous” figure. He thinks she is “joking,” but she isn’t; he just has to wait late after work, which the cashier will take as a sign that he is “interested” in her. This world of sex troubles the naïve Michael (he is only 15), and he doesn’t know how he is supposed to “act.”
Meanwhile, we meet Susan’s fiancé Chris, and that evening Michael follows them on a night out to a “dirty movie,” and sits behind them. He starts stroking Susan’s arm slung over a seat, and observing this Susan smiles to herself but says nothing until Michael puts his hand around her chest, apparently believing she likes this after she had been touching him up just hours earlier.
Instead, Susan turns around and slaps him in the face. Chris is jolted from his reverie from what is happening on screen and Susan tells him this “bloody bastard is touching me up,” and he goes to fetch the manager. Michael tells Susan he was only “joking”; she turns around and gives him a long kiss, then turns away with a wide grin, and Michael seems pleased with himself.
But when the manager arrives Susan claims she wants to report the incident to a constable, who after they arrive and question him, discover he is underage, thus placing the “blame” on the manager. Michael isn’t charged because in the meantime Susan and Chris have left the theater.
The next day at work there is no acknowledgement of the incident, only Susan mentioning that Chris is going to buy her an engagement ring later that day, and then a night out on the town to celebrate. But before the day is over Susan asks Michael to “cover” for her again, and Michael, observing that she is going into one of the men’s bathing rooms with the gym teacher (who he knows is married with children) to have sex:
He becomes agitated, probably out of jealousy, and sets off the fire alarm. After work, Michael hops on his bike and follows Susan and the gym teacher in his car, when it appears that they are going to continue their “business” elsewhere. Susan, angry with Michael’s interference with her sex life, takes the steering wheel of the car and runs over his bike.
The next day they once again do not discuss the incident in order to “clear the air” about what they expect from their “relationship,” since it hardly can be called a “friendship” or even as between equal “colleagues.” Michael doesn’t want to play their swapping game anymore, but Susan tells him that “Kathy” is waiting for him. This news seems of interest to him. Kathy appears to be a former classmate, and their conversation reveals that Michael had a “crush” on her at some point, but she kept rebuffing him. She notes that he has stopped calling her, but after being impressed by reports that he fought some of his former schoolmates over Susan, she tells him that it is “alright now” and she is interested in a relationship with him, even drawing his hand toward her bare breast. But Michael is no longer interested in a relationship with Kathy. He leaves, and Susan is clearly unhappy with her, since she probably set-up this encounter to direct Michael’s interest away from her.
Later as she passes out the pay, the cashier lingers with Michael, obviously telegraphing her sexual interest in him, but he doesn't seem to notice:
That night Michael follows Susan and her fiancé to a private club which he cannot pay the entrance fee for. So while he waits them out, he spends his time consuming hot dogs and milling about the seedy environs of London. He then encounters a life-size cutout of a nude woman who strongly resembles Susan (Asher has admitted that it is her); we are reminded of the hairdo that Susan had briefly worn in the earlier swimming pool scene.
Michael is told that the woman’s name is “Angelica” and she is “expensive,” suggesting she is a prostitute. Later he steals the cutout and hides in a room where a prostitute with a cast on her leg offers him her services at half-price; she also seems to know “Angelica.” Michael demurs, and when the coast is clear he escapes with the cutout. He sees Susan—who apparently has been conning Chris by playing “hard to get”—going off to a subway train. He follows her inside and confronts her with the cutout, demanding to know if it is her or not.
Again, Susan refuses to speak plainly with Michael; she will not say outright if it is her or not, leaving him confused and uncertain. He doesn’t understand why she is cheating on her fiancé with a married man—let alone with many men. Michael is then seen at the pool with the cutout; he dives in with it, and we see him doing a sexual ballet in the water first with the cutout, and then “imagining” it as the nude Susan. We now realize that Michael has developed sexual fantasies about Susan.
Since it is almost impossible to see in the snow, Michael finds some bags and a shovel, and they scoop up the snow, which they take back to the bath house. In the empty swimming pool they the hook up a tea kettle and put snow into it to melt it.
The angry gym teacher shows up to berate Susan about the tires of his car and that he cannot find his keys, which Susan neglects to tell him she threw under the seat. He orders Susan to come with him, but tired of being ordered about she berates him and demeans his “manhood,” and telling him he has ruined “everything.” The suggestion is that because of him, her life has been wasted working at a dirty bath house because of her reputation as a harlot, which her fiancé—who is self-absorbed—does not seem to be yet aware of.
Susan calls her fiancé to tell him she will be late because of an “accident” at the bath house. While on the phone Michael finds the diamond, but he overhears their conversation, and suddenly Michael has an “idea.” Susan finds him lying on the swimming pool floor covered in towels. She demands to know why he stopped looking, and he reveals the diamond on the tip of his tongue before withdrawing it back in his mouth.
Susan sees that he is completely naked, and takes off her own clothes, which is enough to retrieve the diamond from Michael. She could have just left then, but she makes the fateful decision to be “caring” of Michael’s feelings, realizing he wants to have sex with her.
The maintenance man arrives, and unbeknownst to him that there is anyone in the pool, he turns on the water, which rapidly fills it. Michael refuses to allow Susan to leave without “talking” to him about their encounter, and for the first time Susan becomes frightened because she is no longer in control. Michael grabs and throws aside her purse, which she placed her ring in.
She runs for the ladder, but Michael pushes the huge light fixture that they had been using to power the kettle with toward her. It strikes Susan’s head, apparently hard enough to cause a serious gash.
Susan sees the blood from the wound and seems woozy, and just wades in the water as the apparently stunned Michael watches her. She then slips under the water, discoloring it with her blood. Michael follows her under water, cradling her in his arms in the same way as he did the cutout earlier. Cat Stevens sings “But I might die tonight” over this scene providing a more eerie meaning than earlier.
One initially watches Deep End not with a sense of impending doom. It at first appears to be a “coming of age” film, but unlike most films of that nature there is almost no humor to be found. Yet until the very end we expect some kind of resolution where Michael finally realizes that his growing obsession for Susan has no future, and there will be other girls his age who were better for him. Or he could have told himself that their sexual encounter wasn’t all that exciting as he thought it would be. But the film ends on a disturbing note. Susan isn’t an innocent in any of this; she toyed with Michael’s boyish inexperience by alternating between flirtation and meanness, never engaging him as an adult would a teenager looking for adult guidance, especially in matters of sex.
In the beginning Michael isn’t in fact looking for sex; he doesn’t even want to attend to females, but Susan forces him to play her “game” so that she can join men in their bathing rooms for sex for tips. This is a world Michael knew nothing about, and having encountered it, causes him embarrassment about his own inexperience. Michael might have an exterior “masculinity” when dealing with situations he feels he has some control over, but at the bath house and in his interactions with Susan, this is a clearly unhealthy atmosphere for a boy to "learn." His only “teacher” is Susan, who more or less has reduced herself to being a strumpet for whom sex doesn’t mean anything except for a few more bobs, although we may presume that she hopes to escape from this by marrying Chris. But as his first real sexual encounter, it means something to Michael, and he needed know from Susan how she “graded” him. Again, for Susan there was nothing to discuss, because it didn’t really mean anything to her.
The result was that Michael, in
trying to stop Susan from leaving until she talked to him about the encounter—again,
something they had never done before after an incident causing one or the other discomfort--but now he was demanding that they have a meaningful discussion, and in the end
accidentally injures her, probably fatally. What makes all of this even more perplexing and unnecessary is that even after all of this, if someone had done just one
thing differently in the last 30 minutes of the film, the final denouement would
never have happened.
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