Death Watch

Death Watch is a 1980 science fiction film directed by Bertrand Tavernier. It is based on the 1973 novel The Unsleeping Eye by David G. Compton. The film was entered into the 30th Berlin International Film Festival. The film had 1,013,842 admissions in France and was the 35th most attended film of the year. Plot The film is set in a near-future where death from illness has become rare. When Katherine Mortenhoe is diagnosed as having an incurable disease, she becomes a celebrity and is besieged by journalists. Vincent Ferriman, top executive at the television company NTV, offers her a large sum of money if she will allow her last days to be filmed and made into a reality television show called Death Watch. They have already secretly recorded her being told her diagnosis, as her doctor is colluding with them and has given her what are allegedly painkillers but will in fact make her increasingly ill. She accepts £300,000 cash upfront and, after giving the money to her husband, goes on the run in disguise. At a night shelter for down-and-outs she is found by Roddy. The audience knows – but she does not – that Roddy is a senior NTV cameraman who has undergone an experimental implant of cameras and transmitters behind his eyes, so that everything he sees is fed back to NTV, who edit it for their reality show. Roddy has done this mainly for money to give his estranged wife and their son. A side-effect is that he will go blind if he experiences more than a short period of darkness, so he has to stay awake by shining a small flashlight on his eyes at night. As Katherine is liable to be recognised in the city, she asks Roddy to take her far away into open country. In fact she is heading for the home of her first husband Gerald, who she wants to see before she dies. To prepare for meeting him, she asks Roddy to go into a town and buy her some make-up. Dropping into a bar, he sees the primetime screening of Death Watch, and on his way back to their hide-out has an emotional breakdown, losing his flashlight. Katherine comes to look for him and finds the flashlight, but he has already gone blind. She guesses, and he admits, who he is and what he is doing.