Mr. Lazarescu (Ion Fiscuteanu) is not feeling well. He has a bad headache and has been vomiting. He feels that it is something more serious than the pain caused by his ulcer and the hangovers caused by his regular excessive drinking. He calls for an ambulance, and after convincing the skeptical dispatcher that he is not simply drunk, he begins the long wait for help to arrive. Eventually, he visits his neighbors, Sandu (Doru Ana) and Miki (Dana Dogaru), in search of stronger pain relievers. They
are busy and reluctant to help him, but eventually realize that something may be seriously wrong with the smelly old drunkard. Sandu takes him back to his apartment, and, later, the paramedic, Mioara (Luminita Gheorghiu), finally arrives. After ascertaining that Lazarescu has been drinking to excess, she considers giving him an aspirin and going on her way, but a quick examination shows that the old man is in severe pain, and Mioara begins to suspect that he is gravely ill. Thus begins a long, unpleasant journey from one hospital to another, as Lazarescu faces a backlog of patients caused by a massive traffic accident, and the cold indifference of arrogant doctors who appear hesitant to cure a man who has seemingly destroyed his own health. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu was co-written and directed by Rumanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu. It was shown at the 2005 New York Film Festival, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
Both sad and darkly funny, the film is so sharply conceived and richly populated that it often registers like a Frederick Wiseman documentary, even though everything is scripted and every part played by a professional.
By recording this all too commonplace and dehumanizing process, Puiu's film shows the sick old man and the strangers who deal with him to be all too human -- extraordinarily so.
Puiu maintains a strong current of suspense about the outcome -- despite the title, will this Lazarus be revived? --- and a bracingly cynical sense of humor that rescues the material from being a total downer.
Absurdamente angustiante em seu realismo sem concessões, este é mais do que um filme-denúncia (apropriado para vários países, aliás); é, acima de tudo, um olhar agridoce sobre o melhor e o pior em todos nós.
This deathly film is crafted with such ease that it comes appallingly alive. A slowly suffocating, masterly work of social realism that shrouds you in a melancholy look at mortality.
While Lazarescu is descending on his nighttime journey toward zero, the film builds up an entire social world around him--one that is harrowing, funny, infuriating, outrageous and sometimes profoundly moving.
Puiu's seemingly artless, documentary-style mise en scène, with the characters followed by a shoulder-mounted camera, conceals countless subtleties, foreshadowings and running themes.
this is a good film, but the humor is so dark that you won't find yourself laughing. the cinema verite styling works well with the content, adding to the existential questions raised within the film. if you can't bear hospitals and imminent death, do not attempt to watch this movie.
"The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" is about Dante Remus Lazarescu(Ion Fiscuteanu), a 62-year old retired widower, who lives in an apartment with his three cats. One Saturday he has a severe headache while vomiting blood. At night, he calls for an ambulance after his condition has not improved. Certainly, he should be
feeling better once the ambulance takes him to the hospital. Right? "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" is a downbeat and detailed epic of one ordinary man's descent into the medical world of Bucharest.(But before that can start, he is judged by his neighbors and found guilty of the sins of drunkenness, living in an unclean apartment and favoring the company of cats over humans.) The movie is not about the state of medical care in Romania("The Barbarian Invasions" makes a much better criticism of its own country's hospitals.) but that sometimes ordinary mortals and their concerns pale in comparison to much larger events.(Lazarescu just had the bad luck to fall ill the same night as a calamitous bus crash.)
May 2, 2006
Walter M.
Super Reviewer
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