When David Lynch likes a film, it's got to be worth a watch. The director of Dune and Twin Peaks knew a thing or two about intriguing visuals, and he once said that he "freaked out" about the little-known 1970 film Deep End.
Lynch loved the production design and use of colour in this darkly comic coming-of-age film.
Set in London at the wrong end of the swinging sixties, Deep End follows a teenage boy who takes a job at a local swimming pool and becomes obsessed with his seductive colleague.
By turns naive and increasingly cocky, he goes from the shallows of childhood to the deeper, murkier waters of adult life, full of obsession, desire and danger.
The great thing about Deep End is how it conjures such visually striking imagery from such a mundane setting.
David Lynch was particularly taken with the film’s use of colour, and Deep End does indeed use lots of bright colours. But there's an unsettling, decaying feeling to the sickly oranges and greens of the bathhouse, adding to the claustrophobic feel of the setting.
In one notable bit of foreshadowing, the background begins to turn a disturbing deep red, a strange and inexplicable moment before it’s explained by a workman edging into frame with his paintbrush.
The soundtrack adds to this off-kilter atmosphere, including Cat Stevens at his more strident and a surging early score from Krautrock band Can (then known as "The Can").
The film's setting in a public baths might sound dreary, but your audio setup will get a kick out of Can's fourteen-and-a-half-minute psychedelic freakout Mother Sky playing over one sequence.
Director Jerzy Skolimowski made Deep End after he was exiled from his native Poland for making films that upset the ruling communist regime. Despite being set in London, Deep End was largely shot in Germany. Some scenes were however filmed in Soho, giving a snapshot of the seedy strip clubs that made the neighbourhood notorious.
With striking performances from fresh-faced John Moulder-Brown as the teenager learning the ways of predatory adults, and Jane Asher as the worldly attendant juggling assorted affairs, Deep End is a blackly comic treat.
There's an outrageous cameo by the iconic Diana Dors, whose saucy appearance masks a deep sadness. The film depicts the swimming baths as a strange little bubble, where people give into the sordid desires they can't take home.
At times, it almost feels like a precursor to the bawdy sexual misadventures of seventies cinema - some scenes feel like the Confessions of a Swimming Pool Attendant. But the performances and arresting visuals add depth as desire and infatuation give way to something darker, suggesting a disillusionment with the freedom of the swinging sixties.
Unseen for many years after its initial release, Deep End is now available to stream on BFI iPlayer or as a restored BFI Blu-ray (with a making of documentary and bonus short film starring Jane Asher). Listen to David Lynch, and dive in.
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