La Mort en direct (Death Watch) (Death in Full View) (1980)

62% of users liked it
(562 ratings)

Director Bertrand Tavernier provides an unexpected feminist slant to the otherwise standard sci-fi trappings of Death Watch. Harvey Keitel plays a man of the future who has had a camera implanted in his brain. The mechanism, which is endowed with special X-ray properties, is activated by the user's… More Director Bertrand Tavernier provides an unexpected feminist slant to the otherwise standard sci-fi trappings of Death Watch. Harvey Keitel plays a man of the future who has had a camera implanted in his brain. The mechanism, which is endowed with special X-ray properties, is activated by the user's eyes. Keitel is assigned by ruthless TV producer Harry Dean Stanton to secretly probe the subconscious of a dying woman, played by Romy Schneider. Stanton is only interested in the grim spectacle of what goes on inside the brain of someone who knows she's doomed. Keitel, on the other hand, becomes increasingly compassionate--and disgusted by the tawdriness of his assignment--as he stares into Schneider's tortured psyche. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 2 hr. 8 min.
Directed By: Bertrand Tavernier
Genres: Drama, Science Fiction & Fantasy

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1980 Wide

Critic Reviews

Tom Huddleston, Time Out
While it may be conceptually rooted in science fiction, 'Death Watch' is essentially melodramatic in tone and execution: it was shot in late '70s Glasgow with not a shiny jumpsuit or flying car in sight.
Philip Kemp, Total Film
It's let down by preachy dialogue, but makes striking use of the Scots locations.
Hannah McGill, The List
Its plot is a credibility stretch even in these days of de rigueur media paranoia, and its relentlessly murky, moody tone might raise the odd giggle, but Tavernier's long-neglected sci-fi curiosity is compelling nonetheless.

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Featured Audience Ratings

Christopher B

More of a drama than one would expect from the plot summary, this is a great little film that probably rings truer today than when it was made, which made it seem like a sci fi.