Flipside 019: Deep End

[MichaelB]

I think it was being filmed officially, and it was certainly filmed unofficially (I spotted quite a few iPhones being held aloft, and one person in the front row was asked to switch theirs off), but I don't know what's happening with the resulting footage.

[knives]

His worst was The Adventures of Gerard, for the record, and I know he's none too keen on King, Queen Knave or Torrents of Spring either. He also concedes that Ferdydurke ended up proving that his favourite writer Witold Gombrowicz was unfilmable - at the very least, the film should have been in Polish, as translating it into English made it worse. (He himself used the word 'Europudding' in a recent interview!)

Still going to watch the easy to find Torrents of the Spring eventually though. I'm always interested when people don't like their own work because while it's often that the work is legitimately bad on the odd occasion it seems to be a personal defect that makes the work more interesting even if not usually better. Ferdydurke at least sounds like one of those very interesting situations.

[MichaelB]

Sunday Telegraph - which, amongst other things, reveals that the "deleted scene" mentioned on page one of this thread was actually a milder alternative ending in case the actual one proved too much for the censors. And there's no great surprise about this bit:

It’s clear that some of the idiosyncracies of British life confounded the 32-year-old director; like Polanski, he viewed London through a distorted lens, a city thrillingly transfigured through foreign eyes. “I don’t think Jerzy spoke a word of English,” recalls Asher. “Much of the dialogue was improvised and reworked by me and others to make it sound more reasonable.”

One of the reasons Skolimowski is so keen to clean up the English subtitles on his early Polish films is that he had no idea just how bad they were back in the 1960s, because he didn't speak the language himself! And he was apparently none too impressed with the Polish box set, though it's such a bargain and the films are so amazing that it's still worth tracking down, for all the dodgy transfers and linguistic missteps.

[Finch]

Guardian on Deep End

[MichaelB]

Actually, that was yesterday's Observer - or at least they'd have commissioned and published the piece.

They don't have their own separate website, presumably because the Guardian isn't published on Sundays and so it's easier just to combine the two papers under one umbrella.

Oh, and I loved this allegation in the comments:

Burt Kwouk maintains that he made more from selling hotdogs to unsuspecting, real life punters in between takes than he was paid for his night's work on this.

[RossyG]

Any chance of copying and pasting the Telegraph story, Michael?

The link doesn't work for me. I've a feeling the telegraph site has to be paid for to view.

[MichaelB]

It works for me, and I haven't paid them a penny - it's the Times that's behind a paywall, not the Telegraph.

[reaky]

The new Sight & Sound has a nice piece by David Thomson on Deep End - he seems besotted by the film.

[MichaelB]

David Thomson or David Thompson?

This isn't pointless pedantry - they're two different people, and the BBC documentary director turned BFI governor (the one with the 'p') is more likely to be found in the pages of Sight & Sound than the author of the Biographical Dictionary of Film (the one without).

[reaky]

Definitely Thomson without a P, Michael - and even without a byline, the prose would be unmistakable.

[MichaelB]

Confusingly, David Thompson (sic) interviewed Skolimowski for Sight & Sound a couple of issues ago!

[reaky]

S & S has also included the original MFB review from 1971 - but I can't read it because there's a spoiler alert at the top! I'll have to file it until July...

[MichaelB]

I suspect that'll be included in the booklet - the general rule seems to be to include MFB reviews if they're available.

[Mark Metcalf]

How come Amazon UK doesn't list Deep End?

[antnield]

I don't think it's listed anywhere as yet.

[MichaelB]

They haven't issued specs yet either, though I wouldn't expect a full press release for at least another month or so.

Obviously, I'll post it here within minutes of receipt - but in the meantime, I can now confirm that this release is region-free.

[MichaelB]

Five-star rave in the Guardian (for the theatrical revival).

[antnield]

[Murdoch]

That cover is fantastic.

[doc mccoy]

Yes it is (definitely a contender for cover of the year!), but I would not be surprised if it was revised last minute, especially when you consider the conotations of that image and the title.

[knives]

That catches the eye entirely too quickly. Love it.

[jamie_atp]

best flipside cover by a mile

[antnield]

Amazon product description:

DEEP END

A Film by Jerzy Skolimowski

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 baths. 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, co-worker Susan (played by 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 legendary Krautrock band Can. Will Mike sabotage Susan's relationship with her fiancé and get together with her instead?

Jerzy Skolimowski's compelling, darkly poetic portrait of Britain in an era of uncertainty and changing sexual mores now makes a long overdue return to the screen in a beautiful new digital restoration with extensive bonus features.

Extra Features:

- Dual Format Edition: includes both the Blu-ray and the DVD of the film and the extras
- New High Definition restoration
- Starting Out: The Making of Deep End (2011, 73 mins): an in-depth documentary about the making of the film, featuring interviews with Jerzy Skolimowski, Jane Asher, John Moulder Brown, and principle crew
- Deep End: The Deleted Scenes (2011, 8 mins): featurette about sequences removed from the film
- Careless Love (Francine Winham, 1977, 10 mins): Rare and disturbing tale in which a woman (Jane Asher) takes drastic actions to keep the affections of the man she loves.
- Illustrated booklet featuring new sleevenote essay by David Thompson

[knives]

- Careless Love (Francine Winham, 1977, 10 mins): Rare and disturbing tale in which a woman (Jane Asher) takes drastic actions to keep the affections of the man she loves.

You sold me before hand, but this is just my favorite sort of extra. Anyone know anything about it/ Winham?

[antnield]

Description of Careless Love from the BFI's SIFT database:

Black comedy in which a woman finds her lover unsympathetic to the idea of marriage because her children (by her now dead husband) are not his. She resolves this situation in a rather dramatic way.

More info on Winham's website here.