An interesting element of Deep Crimson was it's unique look at gender roles through these evil and demented characters. Coral plays a mother's role in this film, and although she plays it badly to her own children who she mistreats and abandons not far into the film, she does play it to a larger degree with her lover, Nicholas. She is continually assuring him that she will take care of every situation, from giving her own hair to mend his hairpiece, through smashing the old woman on the head with a religious statue while Nicholas cowers like a child in the closet, up through her drowning of the toddling baby girl at the end.
Nicholas is literally wearing the pants in the relationship, but Coral is the real brains and brawn behind their whole undertaking. Nicholas continually displays immature qualities. He has temper tantrums, such as when the young mother sees him without his wig and he attacks her, and also when he begs Coral to kill the old woman from the closet. However, although he is most often the more passive of the two, he is still essential to Coral, because she loves him, and to their scheme, because he is the breadwinner.
Nicholas plays the head of the operation, as a man typically plays the role of the head of the household. However, Coral is a much more powerful and decisive role than perhaps a normal, passive feminine figure would be expected to be and that is portrayed as necessary. This film seems to show that men need women, and vice versa. Neither of them could perform this scam alone--and while these characters are obviously no template for family life, they are perhaps a commentary on it. They are, for the duration, a happy, dysfunctional family.
Nicholas is literally wearing the pants in the relationship, but Coral is the real brains and brawn behind their whole undertaking. Nicholas continually displays immature qualities. He has temper tantrums, such as when the young mother sees him without his wig and he attacks her, and also when he begs Coral to kill the old woman from the closet. However, although he is most often the more passive of the two, he is still essential to Coral, because she loves him, and to their scheme, because he is the breadwinner.
Nicholas plays the head of the operation, as a man typically plays the role of the head of the household. However, Coral is a much more powerful and decisive role than perhaps a normal, passive feminine figure would be expected to be and that is portrayed as necessary. This film seems to show that men need women, and vice versa. Neither of them could perform this scam alone--and while these characters are obviously no template for family life, they are perhaps a commentary on it. They are, for the duration, a happy, dysfunctional family.