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The Death Of Mr. Lazarescu

2006, Movie, R, 153 mins

The Death Of Mr. Lazarescu: Review

DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU, THE
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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 that his ailment might have to do with the ulcer surgery he had 14 years ago. While he waits patiently for the ambulance that may never actually come — it is, after all, a Saturday night in Bucharest — Lazarescu tries to get comfortable in the filthy apartment he shares with no one but his three cats; his wife died nearly 10 years earlier, and his daughter, Bianca, has moved to Toronto. The pain, however, soon gets so bad that he limps across the hall and asks his neighbors Miki and Sandu Sterian (Dana Dogaru, Doru Ana) for help. Miki is concerned about his condition, but she blames Mr. Lazarescu for her husband's drinking, and like a lot of people Mr. Lazarescu will encounter that night, she blames the rotgut booze, which she can smell on his breath, for his illness. When the ambulance finally arrives, ambulance nurse Mioara Avram (Luminita Gheorghiu) examines Mr. Lazarescu, suspects he has cancer and tells the Sterians he must be hospitalized immediately, but neither is willing to help admit him. Whether she likes it or not, Mr. Lazarescu his now solely her responsibility. So Mioara and the ambulance driver, Leo (Gabriel Spahieu), hustles Lazarescu off to what turns out to just the first in a series of hospitals scattered across Bucharest where they're either turned away by exhausted, brutally indifferent doctors, or told that what few beds are available are needed for the victims of a serious bus crash, innocent victims who must take priority over a foolish old man who's obviously drinking himself to death. Mr. Lazarescu, meanwhile, grows increasingly weak and disoriented as he draws ever closer to his death. Shot in long takes with a handheld camera, Puiu's bold film not only has the look and feel of a Frederick Wiseman documentary — Wiseman's 1970 HOSPITAL is a good reference point — it similarly exposes a dehumanizing health care system that's designed to help the sick and dying, but only denies them their dignity. It also offers a bleak but often humorous slice of Romanian society where nothing seems to work and even the bare necessities like oven mitts need to be begged or borrowed. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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