The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

Ever wanted to watch a man inch his way towards death? Here's your chance. It's not as harrowing as you might think because there's a sense of inevitability in the air and frustrations are muted by the understanding that, no matter how bad some decisions are throughout the film, they're all human reactions and have some reasoning behind them. That doesn't mean it's easy to take, and towards the end I did just want it to be over, but it was a productive and insightful experience.

Chilling and moving. I detected a Kieslowski vibe, in part because of the Eastern European locale (and a slight thematic similarity to Kieslowski's own Szpital) but also because the characters are so genuine and multi-faceted. The verité camera style combined with truly amazing acting gives the film an unshakeable documentary feel, and the inevitable loss of Lazarescu hits home as something quite real. Very well done and, except for a bit of a slow start, quite engaging.

This took me at least an hour to really get into, but once I started to care about the characters, I found a very moving, very strange and incredibly frustrating story of the hells of health care. I imagine a similar story could be told in any country. Excellent film.

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is perhaps the best film this year that I never want the displeasure of sitting through again.

Really, really good. Brutal to watch.

aka The slow death of mr L.

A remarkable, brutal, heartbreaking film. Incredibly naturalistic and genuine performances by the actors; especially Luminita Gheorghiu, who plays the sympathetic, weary paramedic who tends to Mr Lazarescu. In fact, all of the characters are sympathetic to some extent, even the asshole doctors who do their job in spite of the bureaucracy and lack of resources. I also liked the simplicity of the camera-work, which I thought added intimacy to the film and made the situation feel very real.

This has much in common with the later Romanian movie "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", but Lazarescu is nowhere near as good. It's effectively involving and very well meant, even gutsy. But in its effort to show how bad the health situation in Romania is, it often goes over the top for a realist film with portrayals of uncaring, insensitive, sometimes outrageously obtuse doctors and hospital workers. Also, the all-natural lighting and overly shaky handcam add nothing to this particular film.

As debuts go, there are few as engaging and hard hitting as this. A satirical social commentary on the Romanian health care service, Christi Puiu takes us on a tragically slow and broken rollercoaster ride with poorly Mr. Lazarescu in the front carriage. At most there is one laugh here, and it had the scope and writing craft to have so many more, but then it really isn't a comedy despite being labelled so. The religious symbolism with names (Dante, etc..) are a little too obvious but forgivable

I was expecting a dark comedy; but it is more like a very well laid-out, in-your-face style tragedy. It was infuriating to see the ordeal of Mr. Lazarescu as he moves through a series of hospitals filled with incompetent, prejudiced yet madly full of themselves doctors. The movie is extremely genuine; you really feel the atmosphere of each hospital and feel the indifference of each medical "un"professional.

Feels very real, but maybe a bit biased against hospital staff who are all shown as assholes.

Nie tylko my mamy chora sluzbe zdrowia.

This is a very bleak watch - comedy is very much dark in nature. I found it interesting and sad how the titular characters neighbours judged him (his situation and his surroundings). Social judgement is one of the key terms in relation to this film - buck passing also comes to mind. Another relevant term would be (in relation to the health professionals) God complex. Its sobering (no pun intended) how people, seem so quick to write him off, as it were. A sad watch indeed.

best movie ever made about hospitals and health care system, pure reality with long sequences, great job

I was bored at first, but by the end totally riveted. This movie gives you the feeling of watching life unfolding right before you. The way the story progresses practically in real time grounds the movie in the moment by moment experience of the characters. You feel Lazarescu's mounting anxiety and helplessness as he's shunted aside and passed from one indifferent or distracted doctor to another. This movie will ring true for anyone who has been a patient or has a loved one who was sick.

Very well done diagnosis of a society and its health system. It is far from a comedy: more than anything it is an interrogation of the meaning and meaninglessness of death in contemporary society.

anacım herkese ölümün bile hayırlısı nasip olsun.

A "black comedy"? Really? This could've easily been a 90 minute film that would've benefitted greatly. I did not need 50 minutes on how unkept his apartment was. Very little humour throughout - it was more a procedural study on the healthcare system. Very dry, repetitive and dull - it reminded me of watching Bela Tarr's The Turin Horse.

Star Rating: ★★★★

Damn this was really boring. Hilarious how it was promoted as a comedy though.

I wish I won't die like that, lonely and at the mercy of doctors and strangers.

This is the one pure movie Cristi Puiu made before becoming a pretentious, arrogant asshole. Yeah, I said it. The descending into an inferno scenario and the very well depicted cruel realities of the Romanian health system (that haven't changed that much in the past 13 years) gives justice, finally, to the real-life man who died while carted from hospital to hospital. Harrowing and also funny.

This movie is everything that is wrong with the healthcare system in Romania. Subtitles are off in English -- so knowing Romanian makes it better; however; quite a tragedy and comedy.

a mostly very good portrayal of a health system and the horrors of mortality, but the characterisation of the doctors at the third hospital was pathetic and really took me out of the movie.

https://letterboxd.com/ladyspiggott/film/the-death-of-mr-lazarescu/

Terrific naturalistic, all too human performances all round. I felt for this old man slipping away while the cogs of bureaucracy ground creakily around. Long but gripping throughout, it's only failure for me is that I did not pick up much of the black humour.

"The Death of Mr. Lazarescu comes on like a force of nature; radiating a startling intensity, it demands to be reckoned with." - Ed Gonzalez

Excellent film.

Tedious and depressing. It has plenty of merits as a piece of film making and I feel unsympathetic giving it such a low score but it didn't entertain.

This all takes a very, very long time and the message seems to be don't get seriously sick in Bucharest. Inspired by an actual 1997 incident

922

Minutely observed piece of gritty realism, trascends its denounce and politics and strikes a universal scope.

This movie is classified as a black comedy, but for the life of me I have no idea why. I didn't even come close to laughing once, but what the film IS is a brilliant drama critiquing the impersonality of bureaucratic institutions. It never goes too far over the top in its criticism. The characters all feel very real and are well acted. I found Lazarescu's plight legitimately infuriating me, and when you're reacting to a movie like it's real, you know you've found a good one. Amazing.

Depresso time.

Brutal when it came out, only moreso in a COVID era where so many thousands have died alone in hospitals. The quiet, steady, and eventually advocating presence of the paramedic Mioara is what love looks like. The system is obviously garbage, but even if it worked beautifully, every Lazarescu in the world needs someone to love them enough to pay attention.

#850

that movie really really real and its the best movie of the Romanian Cinema and also Cristi Puiu is awesome director. Mi e dor de tine Romania. in dormitor singur ank.