Robbie Coltrane in Death Watch

 So remember when Philip Baker Hall died and I pointed out that his first screen appearance was in Zabriskie Point? ...which I posted more because I was a huge Zabriskie Point fan than a Philip Baker Hall one, but, what the heck, neat is neat? 

Another movie that is near and dear to my heart is Death Watch, Bertrand Tavernier's 1980 SF opus, shot in Wales, that essentially predicts reality TV and the rise of omnipresent surveillance. While its special effects (especially its idea of what computers will look like) have not aged very well, it's a character-driven film with great performances, in which a proud woman (Romy Schneider) dying of a rare disease, in a future where disease is almost unknown, is approached by the producer of a reality TV show (Harry Dean Stanton) who wants to exploit her death on television for a handsome payout. She takes the money, and briefly is escorted around by a security person from the TV station, but soon enough slips him and flees. She then picks up a travelling companion she thinks helps her out of a brawl (Harvey Keitel), whom we know (but she doesn't realize) is actually a cameraman for the same TV station, with cameras implanted in his eyes, so that everything he sees, he films. He keeps his secret until they are very near the home of her ex-husband (Max von Sydow), where everything unravels and there is a final confrontation. 

It's a film I have a lot of love for, and got to interview Tavernier about it some years ago. Highly recommend seeking it out if you can find it; there is a nice blu on Shout! Factory that restores some plot elements that were not in the VHS version of the film. 

But more to the point... that TV security person who she slips? He's played by Robbie Coltrane. In fact, a young, thin Robbie Coltrane.

He barely has a line in the film - there's a scene where he tells someone to piss off, while playing with a yo-yo, as I recall. But he's got presence, and any big fans for his might enjoy seeing his first-ever feature film appearance (he'd done a bit of TV prior). 

Actually, my main other connection with Robbie Coltrane is that for some time when I was an ESL teacher, circa 2007, I would come to school with long hair and a dark coat, and, being tall and quite overweight, was quickly nicknamed Hagrid by my charges, who were often Harry Potter fans. I do have photos of those days somewhere, but they're not so easy to access at present, so you'll have to take me at my word. 

RIP, Mr. Coltrane. Thanks for the nickname!