Sixty years after Elizabeth Sanxay Holding wrote "The Blank Wall", San Francisco writer-director team Scott McGehee and David Siegel have adapted the novel into an absolutely riveting and brilliant contemporary thriller "The Deep End", that caused quite a stir at the Sundance Festival and will give local audiences something to talk about.

Like Jim Thompson and other noir writers before her, Holding wrote powerful tales of unremitting nightmares that centred around women characters. She seemed to have an innate understanding that true heart-stopping suspense emerges not just from murders and mysteries, but from the fabric of ordinary life and wrote with searing honesty about women, marriage and motherhood. "The Blank Wall" was first published in an abridged version in the October 1947 issue of 'The Ladies' Home Journal'.

Imagine what the housewives thought when they read the story of a mother willing to do anything to cover up the fact that her daughter's low-life lover has been murdered and, when a mysterious yet romantic blackmailer enters the picture, the mother's cool veneer cracks wide open and the suspense takes on an edge of searing heat and romantic undertones that doesn't let up until the end.

The popularity of the magazine piece led ultimately to the success of Holding's book, which was selected by Alfred Hitchcock to be included in his "My Favourite Suspense" anthology in 1959. Since then, "The Blank Wall" and Holding's other writing have been unexplored.

McGehee and Siegel, two young directors who impressed independent audiences and critics alike with their surreal thriller "Suture", was drawn to Holding's book and dared to ask a question that would challenge their cinematic powers of invention: could they update the classic "domestic melodrama" of the 1940's and '50s to appeal to sophisticated modern audiences?

"In their day, stories like these were very subversive because they asked questions about the nature of families, about the limits of communication, about the loneliness of personal sacrifice," says Siegel. "We wanted to bring out these same elements in a contemporary setting with characters that would be sympathetic and believable to people today."

"The world has changed substantially since stories like "The Blank Wall" were written, but that pressure to keep things contained is still there, even if we don't talk about it anymore, especially for suburban mothers who are constantly in service to their families," says McGehee. "These days most characters in movies are very open and volatile. But we spent a lot of time thinking about how to create a very contemporary woman who, nevertheless, is prisoner to an emotional pressure that won't let go."

Working in their own uniquely - and intensely - collaborative manner, Siegel and McGehee created a detailed outline. Adding a fresh, up-to-date edge to the story, they began making certain key changes, the most obvious of which is that the mother now protects a teen-aged son involved with a frightingly fast-living gay club owner.

"We didn't add the gay lover just to up the ante but to really put a block in the communication between mother and son," says McGehee. "Margaret isn't homophobic but she has no means for talking to her son about this. She is terrified for him and having him be part of this other world adds a layer of restriction and repression that makes sense in today's world."

Tilda Swinton, who delivers an astounding performance as the mother, was immediately taken both with the script and with the source material. "The script was something I had been longing to see in cinema," she says.

Swinton felt that McGehee and Siegel were making a bold move by exploring the inner world of a 21^st century mother. "I think the women's film stopped being made because it became politically incorrect. But contrary to our myths, women will always be put in the position of taking care of everyone but themselves."

For Swinton, her relationship with Siegel and MgGehee was crucial. "They are consummate storytellers. They are true cineastes and that really appealed to me. They know the vale of every atom on the screen. They know what every shape and every colour is going to mean emotionally. And this, of course, is absolutely essential to making the story work."

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