La Mort en direct

Original title: La mort en direct

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

3.7K

YOUR RATING

Romy Schneider in La Mort en direct (1980)

In a future where dying of illness is exceedingly rare, a terminally ill woman becomes a celebrity and a man with camera implants goes to secretly record her for a morbid TV show.

Play trailer1:54

2 Videos

32 Photos

Drama Sci-Fi Thriller

In a future where dying of illness is very rare, terminally ill Katherine Mortenhoe becomes a celebrity and Roddy, a man with camera implants in his brain, secretly records her for a morbid ... Read allIn a future where dying of illness is very rare, terminally ill Katherine Mortenhoe becomes a celebrity and Roddy, a man with camera implants in his brain, secretly records her for a morbid TV show called Death Watch.In a future where dying of illness is very rare, terminally ill Katherine Mortenhoe becomes a celebrity and Roddy, a man with camera implants in his brain, secretly records her for a morbid TV show called Death Watch.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

3.7K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 8 nominations total

Videos2

Photos32

+ 26

User reviews31

6.53.7K

Featured reviews

brianhart64

dark

I just finished watching this movie in a pitch black room and boy was it dark.Several sequences bordered on the invisible as Harvey Keitel descends into a cameraman´s room 101. Romy Schneider a revelation and spreading compassion on all throughout. The cityscapes are glorious and the faceless people of Glasgow add to the alienation expressed by the script. Excellent shift of pace as Max von Sydow enters to fulfill Romy Schneiders dreams. Great cast, though Harry Dean Stanton under-used, and a sin that this is not more widely recognised.

zazu-6

great film

I don't know if it is on video, but I wish I could watch this film again, after 20 years the idea still feels fresh and alive. even though there is truman show, it is not even getting close to the greatness of this film. Today, I have told a writer who is working on a cyberfilm script, to go watch this film first. technology is only a tool (most scifi films tend to forget) in telling the story of 2 suffering souls. The humans are not lost behind the scifi gimmicks, the film is about us humans. watch this film, you really won't be disappoi

8euskir

One of Tavernier's best films.

A great film, and quite scary, specially for Tavernier's view over the media (television here, but just replace that word, and nothing will be different), in a not so far future. Sad, because was Romy Schneider's last film. She, and Harvey Keitel, are in the leading roles, under Tavernier's direction the two in top form. In a way, this was ahead of other future "prophecy films", sure one of the best.

9fwatherton

Prescient dark film - how long 'til we're watching "Deathwatch"?

This movie foretold the downside of the "reality TV" craze twenty years before it happened. Wonderful brooding cinematography around greater Glasgow at its most depressed. This is definitely a film which deserves to be in greater circulation and better known than it currently is. Romy Schneider's last film, ironically enough, and an excellent very real performance in a fairly artsy 70s vein. I should note I saw this in Glasgow some years ago, and it was the European cut, not what sounds to be a bowdlerized American version which misses some of the point.

Carlo Houtkamp

One of Romy Schneider's greatest films.

When I first saw this film at the age of seven, I was left highly impressed. From that moment on, Death Watch (La Mort en Direct) has been one of my favourite films. Although there are some weaker moments (a dull voice-over from a supporting actress, a climax that does not really hit the spot, French opening titles) the acting, the dialogues, haunting soundtrack and the charisma of Schneider and Keitel make watching this film a very good experience. Credit also to the director of photography and his camera crew, whose wonderful style may remind you of Dean Cundey's work on Halloween (1978).

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
At one point in the film, Gerald Mortenhoe (Max von Sydow) tells some historical facts about the Medieval French Composer Robert De Bauleac, while listening to one of his works on a record player. When the film was released, numerous music lovers tried to get a copy of the same record in specialized stores, which could never provide any for a very good reason: Robert De Bauleac has never existed, and the composition heard in the film is Antoine Duhamel's work. However, the concerned piece of music, "Robert De Bauleac's Lament," has been since available as part of the complete movie soundtrack.