La mort en direct (1980)'s comments

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Siskoid

Great premise in Bertrand Tavernier's Death Watch, one that foresees the ghoulish nature of Reality TV and still pushes it to enough of an extreme to still be science-fiction today. But barely, and that's one of its problems. Harvey Keitel is a human camera tasked with following a dying woman (Romy Schneider) in a world where such things are rare indeed. So cybernetic implants and all diseases have been cured, and yet it looks like 1980 Scotland in every other respect. There's no world-building beyond its core concepts. And if it's a little dull and uninvolving, it's that it doesn't hammer home any of its points. Keitel falls in love with her? If you say so. All the stuff about his fear of the dark is innate of what, exactly? She's seeking her ex-husband? Sure okay, and always happy to see Max von Sydow, but what was the point there? And indeed, why does she make that decision at the end? With the talent involved, including Harry Dean Stanton (probably the best character in the film) and Doctor Who alumni William Russell, it should have sung. Instead, it seems loathe to develop its intriguing premise and ends up feeling like any old drama about a dying woman escaping a hospital (instead of a TV program).

2 months 2 weeks ago

MilenaFlaherty

Should be on some official list, science fiction perhaps. Very prescient.

10 years 2 months ago