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General Major 
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ALT__TITLE |
1. Der
Gekaufte Tod 2. La Mort en Direct 3. Death in Full View |
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DISABILITY |
General
terminal illness |
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DIRECTOR |
Bertrand
Tavernier
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Would you
believe Harvey Keitel and Harry Dean Stanton |
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popping up
here? But they weren't slumming before |
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becoming
famous, and Romy Schneider made a hatful of |
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good films
before she died at 44. |
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Science
fiction is often an excuse for brain numbing violence |
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but here
under Tavernier is an intelligent approach, and with |
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some
clairvoyance. When Schneider's character is told she |
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is dying a
TV executive (Stanton) asks for the rights to film |
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her dying.
At first she accepts the deal but changes her mind |
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and runs
away. People in films tend to be able to run around |
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even when
they're dying. [ My father won a bowls |
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championship
when he was dying of mesothelioma but the |
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last few
weeks weren't so pleasant.] |
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On the road
she meets up with a man. They click, they fall in |
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love, they
share secrets. Except that he is an employee of |
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the TV
station and has cameras as implants in his eyes. |
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When
Schneider finds out she's in turmoil. |
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Obviously we
are watching a severe indictment of where |
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television
(and the world) is going. |
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The only
death I have seen on television was of a Dutchman |
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dying from a
tumour so large it couldn't be removed. The |
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filming of
his death was moving and dignified. |
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Notes
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