THE DEATH OF MR LAZARESCU (2005)

Cast

Plot

Director Puiu has created a proper gem here and the jewel in the crown of contemporary Romanian cinema. Mr. Lazarescu (in a terrific central performance from Ion Fiscuteanu) is a surly alcoholic in the winter of his existence and the film is driven along by his odyssey through the pitfalls of a national health system, as physicians consistently fail to diagnose what his condition actually is. Setting his movie within the walls of a state hospital and focusing on his protagonist as he (literally) shuffles off this mortal coil, Puiu manages to effectively evoke the class system at work: mainly through the relationships between physicians and their patients. A cross-section of society at its most vulnerable, and a deeply humane film. Owes a debt to Fred Wiseman's excellent documentary (but sadly, unavailable) 'Hospital', as well as Rohmer's 'Moral Tales', but remains a starkly beautiful thing in it's own right, and with more emotional reasonance.