Cristi Puiu's "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" is a Romanian film that takes place at various hospitals around the country's capital of Bucharest. The film opens with Dante Remus Lazarescu, a 63 year old drunkard, sick and inebriated calling an ambulance. After realizing that the ambulance may not be arriving too soon, he asks the neighbors for help. Once they realize how sick he actually is, the ambulance finally shows up and takes him to the hospital. Lazarescu and the ambulance nurse travel from hospital to hospital to find that he is either not important enough to acquire adequate care, or that the nurses and doctors were too tired or bored to help the poor old alcoholic. As the night goes on we receive a whole laundry list of things possibly wrong with Mr. Lazarescu, from colon cancer to cirrhosis to a brain hematoma. Through the ambulance's nocturnal journey through Bucharest, Lazarescu urinates and deficates on himself as his condition worsens with each hospital visit, After being rejected from three hospitals, the fourth one agrees to operate on his brain hematoma. Throughout the course of the film we are able to note common trends in recent Romanian cinema, such as long takes and fixed camera angles, bland lighting, drab decor and plain, realistic dialogue. Puiu uses the dark lighting and regular sets to portray post-communist Bucharest in its most natural state. The film is fairly lengthy as a direct effect of the realistic nature of the film. Romanian cinema is known for using takes and dialogue that seem to drag on to bring the viewer into the life of the film. As we follow Mr. Lazarescu through this journey, Puiu uses these long takes for us to get to know "Uncle" Lazarescu and we begin to feel for him as he keeps getting denied moving from hospital to hospital. The long dialogue seems to drag on at first, but as the film progresses you realize that it is used to make you feel a part of the conversation. This minimalist aspect shows how recent Romanian cinema, stripped to its fundamentals, connects with the viewer. "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" is the poster child for Romanian cinema, and completely conveys the importance of the many aspects commonly shown in Romanian films.
"The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" is a great feature film showing the true identity of a Romanian director at his best in his own cultural world. I agree with how the film really reaches out to the readers and makes them feel apart of the situation, but do you think that Romanian cinematography tops that aspect in our own American society?
ReplyDeleteI feel that your summary of the film's plot is accurate pertaining to both the content of the film and the standards of Romanian cinema. You touched on all the standards of their films such as the long takes, dark lighting, etc and in doing so the reader has a good idea of what they will see upon watching the film. You fail to mention anything about how the film is viewed on a Global level, but that may be because the film has little elements in common with Hollywood films or even American society.
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ReplyDeleteI thought your remarks on how the film's extensive dialogue and long takes incorporate the audience as a part of the conversation occuring on screen were particularly interesting. Although the movie was not exactly to my taste, there was a point towards the end of the movie where I realized that the camera angles and shifts between conversations going on gave the feeling of being a bystander to everything that was going on. I completely agree that these "minimalist" details gave viewers the feeling of actually being a part of the movie, and although I did not like the plot that was definitely my favorite aspect of the movie.
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