The Death Of Mr. Lazarescu

If a two-and-a-half hour, near real-time chronicle of an 63-year-old man's death on a cold Bucharest night sounds like the dreariest conceivable plot for a film, you might be surprised by director Cristi Puiu's second feature: It's full of humor, pathos and a deep humanism that comes as a warm blast in this age of lifeless, cinematic junk. After downing yet another glass of the homemade hooch that's been rotting his guts for years, Mr. Lazarescu Dante Remus (the wonderful Ion Fiscuteanu) calls an ambulance. Complaining of a pain in his stomach that's now moved into his head, he tells the emergency operator that he been throwing up for the past four days, and suspects...