Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1980 • France, West Germany
Starring Romy Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton
Part human drama, part sci-fi cautionary tale, Bertrand Tavernier’s DEATH WATCH unfolds in a future where death by disease has become extremely rare. When it is discovered that Katherine (Romy Schneider, in one of her final roles) has an incurable illness, she becomes an object of intense media fascination—so much so that Roddy (Harvey Keitel) has a camera implanted into his brain so that he can record, unbeknownst to Katherine, her final days for the reality television series “Death Watch.” By turns moving and unsettling, this cult classic is a chillingly prescient vision of a voyeuristic society in decay.
Up Next in Part 1: The Films
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A Week’s Vacation
Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1980 • France
Starring Nathalie Baye, Gérard Lanvin, Flore FitzgeraldOn the verge of an emotional collapse, schoolteacher Laurence (Nathalie Baye) takes a week off from work in order to figure out her life, reconnecting with friends and family as she wrestles wi...
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Mississippi Blues
Directed by Bertrand Tavernier and Robert Parrish • 1983 • France, United States
See the American South through the eyes of one of French cinema’s most illustrious filmmakers. Fascinated by a culture he knows primarily through books, music, and film, Bertrand Tavernier, along with southerner and...
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Coup de torchon
Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1981 • France
Starring Philippe Noiret, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre MarielleAn inspired rendering of Jim Thompson’s pulp novel POP. 1280, Bertrand Tavernier’s COUP DE TORCHON deftly transplants the story of an inept police chief turned heartless killer and his...
