User:AdamSmithee/Lazarescu

Reception

Critical reception

Roger Ebert and David Denby praised the film for its authenticity and the matter-of-fact approach which lets the story draw its audience deeply inside, while J. Hoberman called it "the great discovery of the last Cannes Film Festival and, in several ways, the most remarkable new movie to open in New York this spring". The Washington Post's Philip Kennicott called the film "a tour de force of cinéma vérité", Stephen Holden in the New York Times called it "a thorny masterpiece" and Philip French considers it "one of the most harrowing and wholly convincing movies I've seen for several years".

Many critics, among which J. Hoberman and Jay Weissberg, also remarked the black comedy aspect of the film. Michael Phillips writes in the Chicago Tribune that the film is "a black comedy, among the blackest", while Peter Bradshaw calls it a "blacker-than-black, deader-than-deadpan comedy" and remarks that, given the subject, "it seems extraordinary to claim that this film is funny but it is".

Some critics panned the film for its excessive length. Thus, Duane Byrge in the Hollywood Reporter remarks that "at two hours and 34 minutes, we, seemingly, also endure his agony", while Kyle Smith in the New York Post writes that "It's supposed to be about a Kafkaesque experience. Instead, it is a Kafkaesque experience". Other critics also remark the length of the film, but don't consider it to be a problem: Roger Ebert finds that "it is a long night and a long film, but not a slow one" and Philip Kennicott notes that "it's long, but it's also very real and worth every minute".

Reviews

• Roger Ebert [1]

The movie is not heartless but it is matter-of-fact, and makes no attempt to heighten the drama. In its relentless gaze at exactly what happens, it reminds me of the Dardenne brothers ("The Son," "L'Enfant"), whose films see everything but do not intervene

It is a long night and a long film, but not a slow one, because we are drawn so deeply into it

We focus on the ambulance attendant

The film, directed and co-written by Cristi Puiu, has been described as a criticism of the health services in Romania

There are no "E.R."-style interns calling for transfusions or racing down corridors with gurneys

The credits include a long list of technical advisers, but it doesn't take an adviser to convince you the movie is authentic

Like "United 93" and the work of the Dardenne brothers, it lives entirely in the moment, seeing what happens as it happens, drawing no conclusions, making no speeches, creating no artificial dramatic conflicts, just showing people living one moment after another, as they must

Note: The man's full name is Dante Remus Lazarescu. Dante wrote of the circles of hell. Remus was a co-founder of ancient Rome, killed by his twin. Lazarescu reminds us of Lazarus, who was lucky enough to find someone who could raise him from the dead

• David Denby, The New Yorker [2] LAST IMPRESSIONS

“United 93” and “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu.” by DAVID DENBY Issue of 2006-05-01

an unregenerate but oddly lovable mess

By temperament, he’s independent to the point of crankiness, and sardonic in a remorseless way that suggests many campaigns and few victories

Cristi Puiu, who is thirty-nine and has made just one other feature film, doesn’t like to rush. As he records the mood and the flow of people at work, he holds the camera at medium distance, avoiding obvious closeups, and by the end we feel that we have understood something about Romanians, about hospitals, and about dying

An acrid kind of black comedy develops that has its roots, I suspect, both in twentieth-century Eastern European literature and in the long experience of dithering Communist bureaucracy.

It would be a mistake, I think, to read this movie as simply a satire on Romanian medicine and the lethargy of the Romanian character

Lazarescu is our representative as he enters that final night. “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu,” for all its terrible matter-of-factness, produces tumultuous feelings of amazement and revolt.

• Philip Kennicott Washington Post July 14, 2006[3]

in this brilliantly detailed and excruciatingly dark film by Cristi Puiu

builds slowly and dispassionately to an indictment of the basic humanity of Romania's doctors

a tour de force of cinéma vérité with astonishing performances by a huge cast of small players

It's long, but it's also very real and worth every minute

• Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly [4]

his extraordinary second feature film, Romanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu

had the drama (which won a major prize at Cannes last year) been released in 2005, it would have made the top 3 of my top 10 list

a lot of Frederick Wiseman's grimmer, real-time, vérité style is also at play

Mr. Lazarescu makes clear, with infinite tenderness, that we're all in this condition of human frailty together

• Jason Anderson, Love and Death in Bucharest: The Films of Cristi Puiu, Eye Weekly [5]

Richly detailed and expertly realized

the film functions equally well as a social-realist epic and a blackly comic allegorical satire. Allusions to famous descents into the underworld (the names of Dante and Virgil also pop up) add layers to a portrait that reveals the best and worst in human behaviour.

In an interview in the new issue of Cinema Scope, the funny, loquacious director mentions inspirations like Eric Rohmer, Frederick Wiseman and Jim Jarmusch

• Jay Weissberg, Variety May 18, 2005, [6]

Two and a half hours of shaky handheld lensing about a man slowly expiring in a succession of hospitals becomes unexpectedly mesmerizing

pic's dour take on the dehumanizing process of medical treatment is leavened by black humor and dialogue that always rings true

Running time will scare off customers, but hardy fest crowds should find the slog is worth moments of tedium.

the admittedly hypochondriacal Puiu obviously spent a lot of time with doctors as is reflected in the long list of medical advisers in the end credits. He and fellow scripter Razvan Radulescu know the hospital milieu intimately

Puiu builds personalities without going further into the specifics and generates sympathy not from detailed character development but out of a basic concern for the human condition.

As the night wears on, the mood increasingly feels like an emergency room reality show. The camera moves with a documentary-like omnipresence capturing snippets of conversations as people pass by Lazarescu without showing any genuine interest

Tight, cramped shots in the apartment have a naturalism not unlike Mike Leigh's intimate family affairs, while hospital scenes, full of sardonic humor, owe more to Cassavetes via "E.R."

• Peter Bradshaw, July 14, 2006 The Guardian [7]

a blacker-than-black, deader-than-deadpan comedy with something of the documentary style of Frederick Wiseman and something also of Samuel Beckett

It seems extraordinary to claim that this film is funny but it is

Part of the film's brilliance is its stunning and unforgiving transmission of the great truth that for most of us, death is not a single, flatline moment, but a gradual, insidious process of deterioration

• Philip French, July 16, 2006 The Observer [8]

One of the most harrowing and wholly convincing movies I've seen for several years

a story that could take place in any country in the world today

The acting is movie naturalism at its best. Ion Fiscuteanu as Lazarescu is magnificent, as is Luminita Gheorghiu as the nurse who gives the audience some hope for humanity

• Stephen Holden, New York Times 'The Death of Mr. Lazarescu' Tells a Modern Hospital Tale By STEPHEN HOLDEN Published: April 26, 2006 [9]

a thorny masterpiece

A sustained triumph of ensemble acting, the film seems so absolutely real it absorbs you into its world the same way a documentary like Frederick Wiseman's 1970 "Hospital" seeps into your consciousness

Another influence he has cited is the television series "ER," which is syndicated in Romania. But where "ER," has "movement in every direction," he writes in the production notes, Romanian doctors move "in slow motion," as if they had all the time in the world

• Ruthe Stein, A sad, affecting journey through Romanian hospital hell, Friday, June 30, 2006 San Francisco Chronicle [10]

Black comedy

Films from Romania rarely make it to our shores, so you know right away that "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" must be something special

the movie is a stunner, so hypnotic that the length hardly matters

wildly unpredictable and darkly comic

Ion Fiscuteanu -- a Romanian Alan Arkin in his ability to modulate black comedy so it doesn't dissolve into shtick

If Puiu only intended to condemn socialized medicine, "Mr. Lazarescu" wouldn't have made it much further than theaters in Bulgaria. The director, whose work has been recognized at several film festivals, explores a universal theme of how illness can rob people of their individuality. It's the same issue poignantly raised in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Wit"

• J. Hoberman, The Art of Dying - A Romanian unknown's ode to mortality is the most remarkable film of the year so far, April 25th, 2006 The Village Voice [11]

the great discovery of the last Cannes Film Festival and, in several ways, the most remarkable new movie to open in New York this spring

an ode to mortality, albeit not without a certain grim humor. (Call it deadpan.)

highly scripted but shot like a documentary. As filmmaking, it's a tour de force, with Puiu successfully simulating—or rather, orchestrating—the institutional texture of a Frederick Wiseman vérité. The ensemble is constantly talking; when not squeezed into an impossibly tight corner, the camera is in near continual motion.

Puiu claims his inspiration was ER: "When you watch the American TV series, there's movement in every direction, the choreography of the characters is amazing. . . . In my country, doctors and everyone else live in slow motion, as if they were on Valium and still had 500 years to live."

Ion Fiscuteanu in particular demonstrates an astonishing absence of vanity in the title role. (Actually, he's the closest thing here to a known performer. Two of his movies— Jacob and The Oak—are former New York Film Festival selections.)

The Romanian Patient, by J. Hoberman, May 24th, 2005 [12] (Cannes)

Cannes 2005 nevertheless struck gold with The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

• Michael Phillips, Movie review: ‘The Death of Mr. Lazarescu' Chicago Tribune [13]

a rich, strange and weirdly gratifying odyssey.

a black comedy, among the blackest

a dispassionate camera eye akin to both Eric Rohmer's and Jim Jarmusch's--Puiu has acknowledged both filmmakers as influences

The actors who play Lazarescu and his angel of mercy, Ion Fiscuteanu and Luminita Gheorghiu, pull off the sort of alchemic performance miracle that can only come from age, experience and invisible technique. Not for a second do you catch these two acting.

• David Mattin, 11 July 2006 BBC [14]

It makes for a slow, demanding watch. But if you're tired of Da Vinci Code style bombast, try looking to this experimental movie.

a strange, compelling creation, and if you allow it time, this haunting, artful movie will get under your skin

• Duane Byrge May 18, 2005 Hollywood Reporter [15]

At two hours and 34 minutes, we, seemingly, also endure his agony -- part of this Romanian film's power and, also, its Achilles heel. Distilled to a more endurable length, this insightful odyssey might best serve as a required text for graduating medical students and hospital administrators.

the admissions process -- from the arrival of the paramedic in the ambulance to the patient's ultimate "incarceration" in a hospital -- is a case study in missed communications, bureaucratic indifference and emergency room overload.

One recalls Paddy Chayevsky's blistering satire "Hospital,"

• Kyle Smith, April 26, 2006, New York Post [16]

Romania's "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," however, defeated me. It's supposed to be about a Kafkaesque experience. Instead, it is a Kafkaesque experience

college-freshman allegory: Lazarescu's full name is Dante Remus Lazarescu, suggesting his mother envisioned her boy growing up to be either hell's tourist or a murder victim)

There is a black comic wit at play [...] Thin stuff