Reflective Encounters

“The choice to go dialogue-free in a narrative film places more pressure onto the visuals and sound. This is not a problem for Deep Blue, a film with a firm command of visual language. This story of two women at a run-down motel (one a guest, the other a cleaner) each finding a fish in an empty swimming pool resonates through the use of evocative symbolism and by conjuring mood through location.

A fish gasping for air next to a freeway is a potent representation for a multitude of feelings. The struggle for life in a gloomy environment is a blend of despair and resignation. The colour palette of a faded blue amplifies this mood: what should connote life-giving water instead represents suffocation.

The two women are the only people we see at this motel, and they never interact. This creates a sense of loneliness to the film that is only amplified by the complete lack of dialogue and overcast location. Just as the fishes might be starved of water, the audience is reminded of the comfort a human voice can bring due to its absence.”

— Cathy Brennan