Deep End is set at the end of the ’60s in a decidedly unglamorous and unswinging London (though actually filmed, very persuasively, in Hamburg), Skolimowski’s pleasingly skewed variation on the coming-of-age sex comedy posits a bizarre, totally unsentimental education for its adolescent protagonist.
The somewhat naïve school-leaver Mike takes a job at the local swimming baths, where he becomes obsessed with an attractive young woman, Susan, who works there as an attendant. Although Susan has a fiancé, Mike does his best to sabotage the relationship, to the extent of stalking both her and her fiancé. Mike becomes increasingly desperate to have Susan for himself, with tragic results.
Often very funny, and blessed with pounding Can numbers on the soundtrack, it’s an original and offbeat delight whose mix of eccentricity and gentle social satire have ensured its enduring status as a cult movie. It’s good to have it back in this new digital restoration.