The film’s real success is that Puiu impresses both with his compassion for human behaviour and his tight grip on realist, documentary-style filmmaking.
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06/24/06
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2006)
93
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:73
Fresh:68
Rotten:5
Average Rating:8/10
Consensus: Shot in naturalistic style, this is a powerful indictment of absurdity and indifference in the face of human suffering.
Theatrical Release:14-07-2006
Synopsis: Shot in Romania, THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU follows the title character as he waits for attention in a rundown hospital emergency ward. Fans of Lars Von Trier's THE KINGDOM should find much to love... [More]
Reviews for The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
Top CriticStay with it and you'll discover a devastatingly powerful blast at red tape and an achingly moving examination of what we will all have to face one day.
07/14/06
Fiscuteanu's Lazarescu is a strange, compelling creation, and if you allow it time, this haunting, artful movie will get under your skin.
06/06/06
Top CriticLong, but engrossing and frequently enraging drama that not only exposes the flaws in the Romanian health service, but also in modern humanity.
07/14/06
Top CriticPuiu's seemingly artless, documentary-style mise en scène, with the characters followed by a shoulder-mounted camera, conceals countless subtleties, foreshadowings and running themes.
09/28/06
It seems extraordinary to claim that this film is funny but it is.
07/15/06
Top CriticClick to read the article
01/20/07
Think of this Romanian import as the anti-E.R. -- no high drama, no kinetic editing and no caring, camera-ready doctors.
04/28/06
[A] magnificently damning critique on healthcare... done with a devil's sense of humor that then calls you out on your laughter.
10/08/05
Amid all the hospital byplay, there is a trenchant portrait of a people and their society.
05/03/06
...the cinematic equivalent of a shaggy-dog story: the inevitable, deliberately anticlimactic punchline is less important than the length to which the buildup is protracted.
05/04/06
blending social commentary with spiritual allegory, it traces one man's nocturnal descent into the Circle of Hell that is Romania's healthcare service
06/15/07
Not the easiest film of the year, but certainly among the best.
10/01/05
This deathly film is crafted with such ease that it comes appallingly alive. A slowly suffocating, masterly work of social realism that shrouds you in a melancholy look at mortality.
12/21/06
a gentle parable of the delicacy of mortality
04/25/06
The film seems pitiless as it records every detail but, as you watch a man who clings to life and an ambulance driver whose search for a hospital becomes a mythic quest, what you're left with is compassion.
06/15/06
Puiu maintains a strong current of suspense about the outcome -- despite the title, will this Lazarus be revived? --- and a bracingly cynical sense of humor that rescues the material from being a total downer.
06/15/06
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, for all its terrible matter-of-factness, produces tumultuous feelings of amazement and revolt.
04/24/06
This Romanian movie defies categorization -- it's halfway between a black comedy and a Fred Wiseman documentary. And it haunts you like the ghost of any dead person you've ever ignored.
05/05/06
This is not an easy film to watch, nor is it one to enthusiastically recommend to your friends. However, it will leave its mark on you.
05/23/06
Latest News for The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
October 05, 2006:
Critical Consensus: "Departed" Is Best Reviewed Wide Release of 2006
This week at the movies, we've got cops and robbers in Boston ("The Departed," starring Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon), chainsaw massacres in Texas... More...
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