Deep End (1970)

Occasionally I question why a particular film is described as a “classic”, Jerzy Skolimowski’s 1970 US-West German co-production Deep End is one such example. But don’t get me wrong this so called lost film deserved its restoration and recent cinema re-release along with a DVD release in July as part of the British Film Institutes worthwhile BFI Flipside series if for no other reason than to give us all a chance to sample this cinematic curio, one that gained critical triumph on its initial release but not box office success.

Mainly shot in Munich, although the London Street scenes were actually shot in Soho, and the exterior of Baths shot in Leytonstone East London, it was set at the tail end of the swinging London scene. John Moulder Brown plays Mike a 15 year-old who has just left school and started work in a Public Bathhouse, something that most towns had due to lack of bathing facilities in peoples homes at that time, this one also incorporated a swimming pool. Responsibility for his training falls to the sexually active Susan who is a wee bit older than our school lever. Adolescent desire kicks in and Mike falls in lust with Susan and who can blame him, but she also has a fiancé Chris (Christopher Sanford) and a lover the lecherous married swimming instructor played by the German actor Karl Michael Vogler. I must not forget to mention the voluptuous Diana Dors who in a wee cameo try’s to seduce the young boy after taking her bath, one of the truly humorous scenes in the film.

Jane Asher

The much coveted Susan is played by one of the key figures of the sixties Jane Asher who was nominated, justifiably, for a Bafta for Best Supporting Actress for her role. She had already appeared opposite Michael Caine in a seminal sixties film Alfie (1966) and had been engaged to the Beatle Paul McCartney. I’m quite aware that the Polish director allowed his actors to improvise, but I’m afraid that Moulder Brown’s acting skills leaves a little bit to be desired. Initially masquerading as a light-hearted sexual sixties romp, the longer the film goes on the darker and more disturbing it gets.  As I have said maybe not a classic but well worth a look.

Essential Killing

Somewhere in Poland.

Captured by the US military after killing the three soldiers that are tracking him in the Afghanistan desert, a Taliban insurgent is rendered to a secret American detention center located somewhere in Poland. When the vehicle he is being transported in crashes, he finds himself suddenly free and on the run in a freezing snow-blanketed forest, a world away from the desert home he knew. Relentlessly pursued by a white clad army with an American helicopter in constant support the escapee must face the fact that he must continue to kill in order to survive this harsh and unremitting terrain.

Vincent Gallo

Essential Killing (2010) is a grippingly stark political thriller by the Polish writer and director Jerzy Skolimowski that attempts to examine the physical and mental sufferings involved with attempting to stay alive under such dire and desperate circumstances. Vincent Gallo (Buffalo 66 1998, The Brown Bunny 2003) is expertly cast as our protagonist Mohammed, whose name we do find out until you see the cast list at the end of the film. Without barely a word to say for the entire movie Gallo’s portrayal of the increasing cold and hunger suffered with its accompanying hallucinations and nightmare dream sequences of his past life is well deserving of the Best Actor Award he received at the 67^th Venice Film Festival. One of the most disturbing scenes in this film is when the fugitive comes across a peasant women breast feeding her baby at the side of the road and at gun point suckles on her other breast which I believe shows the intensity of Skolimowski’s latest work. A piece of work that does not encourage us to take the side of Mohammed, although I believe the viewer is tempted at times or are his pursues any more likable?