Death Watch
| Death Watch | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Bertrand Tavernier |
| Produced by |
Gabriel Boustiani Janine Rubeiz Bertrand Tavernier |
| Written by |
David Rayfiel Bertrand Tavernier |
| Starring |
Romy Schneider Harvey Keitel Harry Dean Stanton Therese Liotard Caroline Langrishe William Russell Vadim Glowna Eva Maria Meineke Bernhard Wicki Max von Sydow |
| Music by | Antoine Duhamel |
| Cinematography | Pierre-Wiliam Glenn |
| Edited by |
Michael Ellis Armand Psenny |
| Distributed by | SELTA Films Little Bear Sara Films Gaumont Antenne 2 TV 13 Munich |
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Release date
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Running time
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128 minutes |
| Country |
France West Germany |
| Language |
English French |
| Box office | $7.6 million |
Death Watch (French: La Mort en direct) is a 1980 science fiction film directed by Bertrand Tavernier. It is based on the novel The Unsleeping Eye by David G. Compton, also known as The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe. The film was entered into the 30th Berlin International Film Festival. The film had 1,013,842 admissions in France and was the 35th most attended film of the year.
The film is set in a future where death from illness has become extremely unusual. When Katherine Mortenhoe (Romy Schneider) is diagnosed as having an incurable disease, she becomes a celebrity and is besieged by journalists. The television company NTV (headed by Vincent Ferriman) offers her a large sum of money if she will allow her last days to be filmed and made into a reality television show – they have already spied on her as she is told of her diagnosis (her doctor is colluding with them) and prepared posters for the show which show her face (to her annoyance when she sees the posters on display before they have contacted her).
Katherine pretends to agree but evades NTV's employees and goes on the run with the assistance of a casual acquaintance called Roddy (Harvey Keitel). The audience knows – but she does not – that Roddy is, in fact, a senior NTV cameraman who has undergone an experimental surgical procedure which implants cameras and transmitters behind his eyes, so that everything he sees is relayed back to NTV, who use it as the basis for their reality show. Roddy has done this mainly for money to give his estranged wife and their son. A side-effect of the procedure is that he will go blind if he experiences more than a short period of darkness; he uses drugs to keep awake, has learned to sleep for brief periods with his eyes open, and carries a flashlight which he shines on his eyes at night. Meanwhile, Katherine's doctor has discovered that she is not actually dying and he informs NTV who tell no one and continue with the show, broadcasting an edited version of Roddy's feed.
Continuing on the lam, Katherine asks Roddy to take her to Land's End. The two arrive and sit on the beach and have a long talk. Katherine then asks Roddy to take her to town and buy her some lipstick. He persuades her to stay by the beach knowing that she will be recognized if she goes with him. In town, Roddy sees "Death Watch" playing in a pub and begins to cry. He returns to the beach as night is falling and has an emotional breakdown, losing his flashlight. Katherine comes to him and he asks her to help him. She finds the flashlight and shines it in his eyes, but he has already gone blind. Roddy admits who he is, and what he is doing, to her.
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