After filmmaker Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel) completes the screenplay for what he believes will be his masterwork, he sinks into a depression when he learns that the only actress he envisioned for the lead role, Brenda Morel (Jane Fonda), is taking a TV job instead and tells him he hasn't made a good movie in years. Back at the luxury Swiss resort where he's staying, Mick is talking with his friend Fred (Michael Caine), when he calmly walks towards the balcony and leaps off to his death. Now, the movie is concerned with aging and mortality from first frame to last, but I don't think anyone expected Keitel to do himself in quite so suddenly.