Death Watch

(France - W. Germany)

Selta/Little Bear. Director Bertrand Tavernier; Producer Gabriel Boustani, Janine Rubeiz; Screenplay Bertrand Tavernier, David Rayfiel; Camera Pierre-William Glenn; Editor Armand Psenny, Michael Ellis; Music Antoine Duhamel; Art Director Tony Pratt

Romy Schneider
Harvey Keitel
Harry Dean Stanton
Therese Liotard
Max von Sydow
Caroline Langrishe

The story, shrewdly crafted by Bertrand Tavernier and American screenwriter David Rayfiel from a novel by David Compton [The Unsleeping Eye], is a throat-catcher. In a future society people die of old-age, science having almost completely banished disease.

A cunning TV producer, Vincent Ferriman, played with chillingly unctuous serenity by Harry Dean Stanton, hits on the idea of a program that would cover live the last days of an individual who has managed to contract a terminal illness.

Ferriman's proposed subject is Katherine Mortenhoe (finely played by Romy Schneider), whose fierce independence and sensitivity would seem to provide poignant fodder for the camera eye. But Katherine, after signing a contract, flees the city.

Death Watch is a compelling drama centered on the human implications of its fanciful premise, as well as a harsh indictment of the media's role in society.

(Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1980. Running time: 128 MIN.

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