Films involving General Conditions

General: Major Films no photo.

Title	Deathwatch (1980)
Alternative/Original Title	1. Der Gekaufte Tod 2. La Mort en Direct 3. Deafth in Full View
Disability	General terminal illness
Country	France-Germany
Length	128
Genre	Sci-Fi
Rating	4
Director	Bertrand Tavernier
Cast	Romy Schneider Harvey Keitel Harry Dean Stanton Max von Sydow
Notes	In English. Would you believe Harvey Keitel and Harry Dean Stanton popping up here? But they weren't slumming before becoming famous, and Romy Schneider made a hatful of good films before she died at 44. Science fiction is often an excuse for brain numbing violence but here under Tavernier is an intelligent approach, and with some clairvoyance. When Schneider's character is told she is dying a TV executive (Stanton) asks for the rights to film her dying. At first she accepts the deal but changes her mind and runs away. People in films tend to be able to run around even when they're dying. [ My father won a bowls championship when he was dying of mesothelioma but the last few weeks weren't so pleasant.] On the road she meets up with a man. They click, they fall in love, they share secrets. Except that he is an employee of the TV station and has cameras as implants in his eyes. When Schneider finds out she's in turmoil. Obviously we are watching a severe indictment of where television (and the world) is going. The only death I have seen on television was of a Dutchman dying from a tumour so large it couldn't be removed. The filming of his death was moving and dignified.

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