Death Watch (Bertrand Tavernier, 1980)

Romy Schneider is one of my screen goddesses if not THE goddess. So I was sure I've seen this flick before and didn't like it much because couldn't really remember much about it. So when IFI put on the restored version for three days over the weekend screenings and (of course) publicized it as "re-discovered" classics I couldn't stay away. Not that I buy any of that propaganda crap but it is such a rare occasion to see Romy on the big screen that it was just no question about going to see it. And besides it might be good, Tavernier certainly made some decent movies.

Now I'm surprised I didn't remember it but for all the wrong reasons. Its main idea about media exploitation and real time TV may be before its time but it is put together very naively. Maybe the problem is that director tries to tackle too many of "grand" issues instead of taking his time to tell story more slowly and maybe intimately. So we jump from one scene to another and from one genre to another and pretty soon everything becomes just a mess which is hard to follow.

The biggest flaw is cast which one would never expect from the names like Romy Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton and Max von Sydow. They just don't function, maybe because of poor dialogs written in some artificial language nobody in the real word speaks. The "weakest link" without the doubt is Keitel who seems to be totally lost and has zero chemistry with Schneider. His (famous NYC character?) acting is totally over the top and it reaches its idiotic peak at the end. He is blind and while sitting at the table he keeps shaking his head like an cretin. Hilarious but also painful to watch.

It has few good things too. Like gloomy suburbs of Glasgow and landscapes of Scottish coasts are beautifully shot and music during latter is not bad at all. And check out the poster! Really fuckin cool right!?!

But I'll of course remember it for "my" Romy. This was one of her last movies and seeing her playing the role of terminally ill woman brings back even more feelings of melancholia and sadness. What a babe she was and what a shame she died so young.

4/10