The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu
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| The Death of Mr. Lazarescu | |
|---|---|
 Cannes Film Festival poster |
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| Directed by | Cristi Puiu |
| Produced by | Alexandru Munteanu Bobby Păunescu Anca Puiu |
| Written by | Cristi Puiu Răzvan Rădulescu |
| Starring | Ion Fiscuteanu Luminiţa Gheorghiu |
| Music by | Andreea Paduraru |
| Cinematography | Andrei Butica Oleg Mutu |
| Editing by | Dana Bunescu |
| Distributed by | Tartan USA |
| Release date(s) | September 22, 2005 |
| Running time | 153 min. |
| Language | Romanian |
| Budget | EUR 350,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Romanian name Moartea domnului Lăzărescu) is a Romanian drama made in 2005 by director Cristi Puiu. In the film an old man (Ion Fiscuteanu) is carried by an ambulance from hospital to hospital all night long, as doctors keep refusing to treat him and send him away.
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu enjoyed immediate critical acclaim, both in film festivals, where it won numerous awards, and after wider release, receiving favorable reviews. Rotten Tomatoes, which gathers reviews from a large number of professional film critics, gives the film a 93% 'fresh' rating.[1]
The film is planned to be the first in a series by Puiu called Six Stories from the Outskirts of Bucharest.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Dante Remus Lăzărescu (Ion Fiscuteanu), a cranky old man, lives alone with his three cats in a Bucharest apartment. Feeling sick, Lăzărescu calls for an ambulance, but once it becomes clear that no ambulance is coming, he asks for his neighbors' help. Not having the medicine Lăzărescu wants, and not wanting to worsen his condition by giving him the wrong medication, the neighbors give him some pills for his nausea. In the hallway, talking with his neighbor, we discover that Lăzărescu is a heavy drinker. His neighbor then helps Lăzărescu back to his apartment and lays him down on his bed. After Lăzărescu vomits blood strings, the neighbors decide to call an ambulance. When the ambulance finally arrives, the nurse, Mioara (Luminiţa Gheorghiu) dispells the idea that Lăzărescu's ulcer surgery over a decade before is the culprit for this pain. While performing a patient history, we learn that Lăzărescu's drink of choice is a strong, homemade liquor. The nurse suspects he has colon cancer, and, after informing his sister who lives in a different city that the condition could be serious and she should visit Lăzărescu in the hopital, the nurse decides to get him to a hospital.
The film follows Lăzărescu's journey through the night, as he is carried from one hospital to the next. At the first three hospitals, the doctors, after much delay, reluctantly accept to examine Lăzărescu. Then, although finding that he is gravely ill and needs emergency surgery, keep refusing to hospitalize him and send him away. Meanwhile, his health deteriorates rapidly, his speech is reduced to babbling and he slowly loses consciousness. The reasons for neglecting him range from the fact that the hospitals are jammed with injured passengers from a bus accident to the doctors being only humans which are tired, bored, or simply don't feel like taking care of a smelly old drunkard. During the night, his only advocate is the nurse, which stubbornly stays by him and tries to get him hospitalized and treated, while passively accepting verbal abuse from the doctors who look down on her.
Finally, at the fourth hospital, the doctors accept Lăzărescu for an emergency operation to remove a blood clot in his brain, so that his incurable liver neoplasm can kill him, as one of the doctors in the film cynically comments.
[edit] Production
According to Cristi Puiu[2], the initial impetus for the film came out of his public conflict with the National Council of Cinematography (CNC), a Romanian public institution which is the main provider of financing for filmmaking in Romania. Both in 2001 and 2003, Cristi Puiu, sustained by other young Romanian film directors (such as Nae Caranfil and Cristian Mungiu) accused CNC of directing financing towards the members of its Advising Council, lead by Sergiu Nicolaescu, and their protégés[3][4][5]. As a reaction to the long fight with CNC, in 2003 Puiu wrote in a few weeks the synopsis for a six film cycle he called Six stories from the outskirts of Bucharest (including The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu). He initially planned them as low budget films, trying to prove that Romanian directors can make films without aid from the CNC[2].
The medical framework in which the story of The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu unfolds grew out of a two year period (between 2001 and 2003) Cristi Puiu spent suffering of hypochondria[6]. Although only suffering from stress and a common form of colitis, Puiu became convinced that he has a terminal disease. The resulting fear of dying made him obsessively collect information on diseases and medication, as well as giving him direct experience with the medical system. All this information then naturally formed the basis for setting his next movie in a medical background[2].
Another inspiration for the subject of the film was the actual 1997 case of Constantin Nica, a 52 year old man who, after being sent away from several hospitals, was left in the street by the paramedics and died[7].
After finishing the synopsis for the six films in Six Stories from the Outskirts of Bucharest, Cristi Puiu showed them to Răzvan Rădulescu, a writer and screenwriter who also collaborated with Puiu on writing Stuff and Dough (2001) and Lucian Pintilie's Niki and Flo (2003). They started researching The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu by going to various doctors and hospitals, then completed the screenplay[2]. Puiu and Rădulescu participated with the film in the 2004 Script Contest organised by the CNC. However, the CNC refused financing for The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu, ignoring Puiu's previous success (e.g., he had won the Golden Bear Award for his short film Cigarettes and Coffee the same year). Puiu made an appeal to Răzvan Theodorescu, the Minister of Culture at the time, who approved it immediately, overruling the CNC decision[8].
The actual filming was accomplished over 39 nights, in November-December 2004. Because the film was finished late in the year, the crew worked very hard to make it in time for Cannes film festival. The film was completed on an overall budget of EUR 350,000[6]. To produce this film, Cristi Puiu started his own production company, Mandragora, together with his wife and Alexandru Munteanu, the executive producer of The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu. All marketing decisions were left to his partners in the production company, Puiu focusing on the artistic and technical issues[2].
[edit] Awards
The film received more than 20 awards [8], among which:
- 2005 Cannes Film Festival - Un Certain Regard Award
- 2005 Transilvania International Film Festival (Cluj-Napoca) - The Prise of the Public
- 2005 Chicago International Film Festival - Silver Hugo Special Jury Prize
- 2005 Reykjavik International Film Festival - Discovery of the Year Award
- 2005 Copenhagen International Film Festival - Grand Prix du Jury
- 2006 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards - Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, Luminiţa Gheorghiu
It also received nominations for Best Director and Best Screenwriter at the 2005 European Film Awards, and for Best Foreign Film at the 2006 Independent Spirit Awards.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Rotten Tomatoes computes a 91% 'fresh' rating for The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (August 2, 2006) [1]
- ^ a b c d e Pe divanul Dilemei Vechi (On Dilema Veche's couch) - interview with Cristi Puiu in Dilema Veche 118, 28 April 2006 [2]
- ^ Presedintele CNC, Decebal Mitulescu - total de acord cu cererile tinerilor furiosi (Decebal Mitulescu, chairman of CNC - totally agrees with demands by the angered youngsters) - Adevărul, April 2003 [3]
- ^ Nu vreau să fac filme la kilogram (I don't want to make movies by the kilogram) - interview with film director Cristian Mungiu by Marius Chivu, 22 nr. 687, 6 - 12 mai 2003 [4]
- ^ Fantomele, dupa ultimul bal din enclava filmica (Phantoms, after the last ball in the film enclave by Valerian Sava, Observator cultural nr. 51, 16-22 Feb. 2006 [5]
- ^ a b Am intrebat un doctor daca e grav si a zis „Da, bă, o să mori!" (I asked a doctor whether it is serious and he said "Yes, dude, you're going to die!") interview with Cristi Puiu by Brânduşa Armanca, Ziua, 1 Aug. 2005 [6]
- ^ Ţară fara vinovaţi - Cazul Nica, dupa nouă ani (Country with no guilty people - The Nica case after nine years) by Mira Bălan, Jurnalul Naţional, 13 Apr. 2006 [7]
- ^ a b Cristi Puiu: "The Romanian movie industry is losing ground" interview with Cristi Puiu by Otilia Haraga, Bucharest Daily News 16 Dec. 2005 [8]
[edit] External links
- The Death of Mr. Lazarescu at the Internet Movie Database
- Cannes Film Festival page for The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
- Roger Ebert's review of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu [9]
