Disturbing yet enthralling

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This European science fiction story reminded me in many ways of Fassbinder's "World on a Wire," the starkness, the deliberate pacing, and the art house pretensions all within a clever sci-fi premise. However, Fassbinder made his film engaging, suspenseful and also thought provoking. This film, while thought provoking, is dreadfully dull. The story here has TV producer Harry Dead Stanton sending reporter Harvey Keitel (who has camera implants in his eyes with special x-ray properties) to interview a dying writer, Romy Schneider. The film does pose interesting questions about privacy and independence in a society where both are eroding. This topic is made all the more interesting and prescient today, in the age of Google Glass and social media. Unfortunately, the film moves as a leadened pace and is populated with uninvolving characters, despite three strong actors in the leads, along with Max Von Sydow in a supporting role. This film does have it's defenders, but I found it pretentious and dull, though it may be that I'm just not a fan of writer/director Bertrand Tavernier, whose only film I've ever liked was "Coup de torchon."

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.

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.

This film was shot in my home town, Glasgow, in 1979. Since then it has rarely been seen and indeed I only saw it myself for the first time this year. Our local arthouse cinema, the Glasgow Film Theatre, screened a one off presentation of what was alleged to be the last print in existence. Though the print itself was old and worn the film blew me away with its futuristic storyline, fantastic cast and phenomenal locations. It captures Glasgow as it was in the late 70's just before a period of great changes in the landscape of the city. Tavernier skillfully uses an environment that is full of eery imagery - graveyards, cranes and an industrial landscape that is grinding to a halt. The film also depicts a society fascinated with death. Harvey Keitel is excellent as the human camera that allows society the ultimate act of voyeurism - watching someone die on TV. Awesome. Someone, somewhere please commission