Bathhouse obsession bubbles over in Skolimowski’s provocative coming-of-age drama.
DEEP END
If you can't have the real thing... you do all kinds of unreal things.
Fifteen year old dropout Mike takes a job at Newford Baths, where inappropriate sexual behaviour abounds, and becomes obsessed with his coworker Susan.
Deep End is a 1971 United Kingdom and Germany comedy, drama, and romance film directed by Jerzy Skolimowski about a 15-year-old dropout, Mike, who becomes fixated on his older coworker Susan as they navigate the strange world of public baths and sexual tension.
- Director
- Jerzy Skolimowski
- Writers
- Bolesław Sulik, Jerzy Gruza, Jerzy Skolimowski
- Release
- 1971
- Runtime
- 1h 30m
- Country
- United Kingdom, Germany
- Language
- English
- Also Known As
- Badeanstalten, Starting Out, La ragazza del bagno pubblico, Grand bain, Hyväilysi kosketus, Na samym dnie
The SassyFlix Take
From the era when even a quick rinse at the baths came with a side of existential crisis.
Why Cult
Few films capture the voyeuristic oddity of a 1970s London bathhouse, where every cubicle may contain a fresh moral dilemma—or a football-themed seduction.
Fifteen-year-old Mike’s infatuation with his older coworker Susan is as awkward and inappropriate as it is compulsively watchable.
From male full frontal to female full frontal nudity, Deep End doesn’t just splash around with sexual frankness—it dives in headfirst.
Diana Dors turns up as a client who blends comic seduction and football banter, leaving a young Mike—and the viewer—both amused and unsettled.
About This Film
Mike fantasises about Susan and falls in love with her, even though she has a wealthy and handsome young fiancé, Chris (Chris Sandford). Mike also discovers that Susan is cheating on her fiancé with an older, married man (Karl Michael Vogler) who was Mike's physical education teacher and works at the baths as a swimming instructor for teenage girls, touching them inappropriately. Mike begins following Susan on her dates with Chris and the instructor and trying to disrupt them. Although Susan often gets angry at Mike for this, she provides just enough encouragement to cause him to continue the behavior. Mike's infatuation with Susan continues despite his friends mocking him, his mother being treated rudely by Susan, his bicycle being destroyed by Susan, and his activities drawing the ire of Susan's boyfriends, local police, and Mike's boss at work. Obsessed with Susan, Mike refuses other outlets for sex, such as his former girlfriend and a prostitute who offers him a discount. While following Susan on a date, Mike sees and steals a life-sized advertising photo cut-out of a naked girl who resembles Susan. He confronts Susan with it on the London Underground, flying into a violent tantrum in front of other passengers when Susan teasingly refuses to tell him whether she posed for the nude photo. Mike then takes the cut-out to the deserted baths after hours and swims naked with it, embracing it.
The next morning, Mike disrupts the instructor's foot race and punctures the tyres of the instructor's car while Susan is driving it. Susan gets mad and hits Mike, in the process losing the diamond from her new engagement ring in the snow. Anxious to find the lost diamond, Mike and Susan collect the surrounding snow in plastic bags and take it back to the closed baths to melt it, using a lowered ceiling lamp outlet to heat an electric kettle in the empty pool. While Susan is briefly out of the room, Mike finds the diamond in the melted snow, and lies down naked in the dry pool with the diamond on his tongue. He teases Susan by refusing to give her the diamond until she undresses. She does so, he gives her the diamond and she is about to leave, but she reconsiders and lies down next to him. They have a sexual encounter, although it is not clear whether Mike is able to perform.
Chris then telephones and Susan rushes around the empty pool hurriedly gathering her clothes to go and meet him. Mike begs her to stay and talk to him, but Susan insists she has to leave. Meanwhile, an attendant has arrived, who, unaware of the presence of Mike and Susan, opens the valve to start filling the dry pool with water. Mike becomes more insistent, chasing Susan around the rapidly filling pool, and finally hitting her in the head with the ceiling lamp, severely injuring her. She falls (along with a tin of red paint that resembles blood) into the water of the pool. Mike embraces the dying, nude Susan underwater, just as he embraced the photo cut-out.
Film Details
Themes & Keywords
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Deep End about? +
Deep End is about Mike, a 15-year-old dropout who becomes obsessed with his older coworker Susan while working at a bathhouse where sexual tensions simmer beneath the surface.
When was Deep End released? +
Deep End was released in 1971.
Who directed Deep End? +
Deep End was directed by Jerzy Skolimowski.
How long is Deep End? +
Deep End has a runtime of 90 minutes.
What genre is Deep End? +
Deep End is classified as a comedy, drama, and romance.