DIVE-IN MOVIES: Deep End

This November, Wavelengths Leisure Pool transforms into a swinema. Lounge on the water’s edge, float on a lilo or swim while you watch. Suitable for over 16s only.

DEEP END
Dir. Jerzy Skolimowski / UK-Germany 1970 / 92 minutes / Certificate 15
Tickets £15 + booking fee (includes free swim)

The Swinging Sixties are over and the long, grey morning after has only just begun. But there are still eye-opening new experiences in store for wet-behind-the-ears teenager Mike (John Moulder-Brown) when he takes a job at a rundown London swimming bath.

After one of its more mature visitors steamily attempts to take advantage (Diana Dors, in a superb cameo), he gradually wises up to find himself adrift with an increasingly obsessive interest in sassy, self-assured, spoken-for co-worker Susan (a seductive Jane Asher).

Giddily he follows her into the grimy underbelly of Soho for a long dark night of the soul – soundtracked with great intensity by Krautrock legends, Can. Will Mike sabotage Susan’s relationship with her fiancé and get together with her instead?

Jerzy Skolimowski’s film is a compelling, darkly poetic portrait of London life in an era of uncertainty and changing sexual mores.

★★★★★ “A romantic, comic and disturbing work that’s unlike anything else made in Britain, except perhaps the work of Roman Polanski.” Radio Times

★★★★★ “Everything about this singular film feels vibrant and surprising in a way that makes most modern coming-of-age movies look formulaic and, well, shallow.” Guardian

★★★★ “A deeply sexy film… Jane Asher, Diana Dors and directorial brilliance make ‘Deep End’ a neglected British gem” Telegraph

Part of BFI Love, in partnership with Plusnet, this programme is supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London and proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network bfi.org.uk/love