Death Watch

Journalist Harvey Keitel has a camera built in his eye and secretly films a woman dying of cancer. Every once in a while, he has to put a certain substance in his eye for the camera so he doesn't go blind. Sure, it sounds a bit stupid, but the film is surprisingly pretty good. It’s quite dark, and I like that. (05/08/2003)

A really dark event serves as a premise of this movie. Moreover it is still relevant even after 40 years which is even more terrifying. But it is a pity that the movie felt really inaccessible to me. In fact the movie comes across as if it was telling the story in a way it wants, doesn’t want to appeal to the viewers and you should make whatever you want out of it. Even though no one had any idea what tragedies would fall upon the Roma but I have to say that she gave everything she had to the role including total hysteria. But Harvey Keitel wasn’t far behind either, including the hysteria. It is a pity that the movie is too long but the finale is worth the wait. (09/03/2020)

After all the attempts at continental co-productions with England and the USA (starting in 1962), Romy Schneider made her last and absolutely most impressive film of this chapter of her career. This story about the crudest form of reality TV is as relevant today as it was years ago. The viewer's desire to watch anything that is against humanity knows no bounds and it is only puzzling that this problem has not been solved to this day and is only stagnating. Romy and Harvey form a mismatched pair of victim and wolf in sheep's clothing, ideally suited to the machinery of progress and destruction. Romy's natural charm, without any significant styling or make-up, blossoms with every smile... and traditionally makes us forget the small fact that the year 2021 is depicted here in all its 1980 authenticity. (11/17/2011)