I found myself mesmerised by Jonathan Glazer's alien vision of Scotland in Under The Skin. He wasn't the first director to do this however. 20 years earlier, Bertrand Tavernier used the post-industrial landscape of Glasgow as the backdrop for the eerily prescient future dystopia depicted in Deathwatch.
What Godard did for 60s Paris in Alphaville, Tavernier does for Glasgow in the 70s. Whilst the location is the perfect backdrop for a theme about the cost of technological progress at the expense of society, this is no Soylent Green vision of the future. It's altogether more subtle, pervasive and haunting. In a world of artificially extended lifespan for those that can afford it, boredom is the enemy and morality is the collateral damage.
Romy Schneider is a woman diagnosed with a rare incurable illness who as a result will die a natural death. As a result she is highly sought after by media mogul Harry Dean Stanton as the subject of his latest show 'Deathwatch' (real billboards for this were erected in the west end). Harvey Keitel is the 'cameraman' who ingratiates his way into her life in order to film her in real time via a camera implanted in his eye. All this is merely background however, barely elaborated upon or alluded to, as Tavernier is more interested in the slow burn of relationships and ideas.
Keitel's character begins as a cool, detached professional only to be driven mad and blind by the compromises he has made to his humanity. Schneider is wonderful throughout and the tragic circumstances of her death not long after the film was released gives her performance even greater poignancy. Harry Dean Stanton is cast brilliantly against type and an appearance by Max Von Sydow in the film's final third just knocks this film out of the park cast-wise.