There’s never been a movie like “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu,” unless you count the long, painful, fly-on-the-wall hospital documentaries of Frederick Wiseman. This Romanian film is not a documentary, but we seem to be living through a single night in real time.
The title tells the story, in a way. In a shabby apartment in Bucharest, a 63-year-old man named Dante Lazarescu (played by Ion Fiscuteanu) feels ill – not an uncommon occurrence, we suspect. This evening, with the help of his neighbors, he calls an ambulance.
After a long wait, the ambulance arrives, and with it a patient paramedic (Luminta Gheorghiu); she will be along for the ride for much of the rest of the evening.
Mr. Lazarescu’s deliverance is not at hand, for each emergency room visited during the night is more crowded than the last, and each team of doctors more dismissive of his condition.
The diagnoses vary, but one thing is common: the paramedic’s attempts to get attention for her patient will be treated with contempt or outraged arrogance by the doctors who examine him. And at some point her advocacy seems to get in the way of his treatment.
It would be comforting to think that “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” describes a condition unique to Romania, but the medical nightmare rings a little too universal for that. Anybody who’s ever had to jump through hoops at a hospital will recognize some of the absurdities of this experience.
But the film is far from a conventional satire (though it occasionally recalls the scathing George C. Scott movie “The Hospital”). Director Cristi Puiu has made this almost an experimental movie, stretching out over two and a half very slow hours with a minimum of drama or even forward motion.
If you can drop into the film’s rhythm, it will reveal some powerful observations and a persistent (if very black) sense of humor. All the actors who pass by at the different hospitals are uncannily well cast; you really could believe these are the doctors and nurses on staff. And you’ll wish you had the better fortune to run into somebody else on duty.
A scene from “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
