Both Ends of the Spectrum: 'The Death of Mr. Lazarescu'

By David Eng

This column is going to focus on the two main categories. The first will be foreign films and the second will be cartoons. I find many people find these two categories to be quite daunting to try and get acquainted with due to the obscurity of foreign films along with the social stigma of adults watching cartoons. These two forms of media many people consider to have nothing much in common, but they are somewhat similar. They suffer from the same problem where they are discriminated against for unreasonable reasons and I hope that my column will provide proof that these media forms have the potential to be enjoyed by all. The column is planned to be weekly and have the subject alternate between the two each week.

            For my first article I will be writing about the Romanian film The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. This lovely film is directed and written by Cristi Puiu and runs a whopping 153 minutes. The movie should be classified as a minimalist comedy as it utilizes a somber color scheme while being extremely repetitive. Repetition should not be taken as a negative comment as the long winded narrative is crucial to the message the film is trying to make. Our protagonist of the movie is Mr. Lazarescu, played by Ion Fiscuteanu, and he plays an elderly Romanian man who is becoming ill and requires medical attention. The real adventure starts when he is whisked away from his home by a nurse who will take him to a hospital for treatment. As the night progresses, Mr. Lazarescu's condition slowly deteriorates. Saying more than this will spoil parts of the movie which is something I would like to avoid.

            The film's cinematography is intricate despite the lack of action in the film itself. Many shots are filmed in such a way to make the camera seem to be a character of its own. This technique helps to have the audience feel engaged in what is happening. One scene in particular is when Mr. Lazrescu is on the stretcher in the back of the ambulance. The camera is in a stagnant position and follows Mr. Lazarescu's conversation with the drivers. Along with this, the camera feels every bump of the road and jars accordingly. The build up of the scene makes us as the audience feel nauseous because of these effects. The scene's climax is Mr. Lazarescu vomiting showing that he is nauseous just like the audience. This type of cinematography is not during a particular important scene, but shows just how much thought went into the making of the film.

            Suggesting this movie to people is a bit of a tall order. The movie runs extremely long and there lacks much action. The real enjoyment comes from the comedy that the camera presents. The scenes themselves may not be terribly funny, but the repetition followed by the unmotivated camera movement makes for some very comedic moments. The term unmotivated camera movement refers to scenes where the camera is no longer interested in our protagonist and switches focuses to seemingly more interesting content. This creates moments of humor where instead of helping our dying hero, we hear about someones unrelated love interest or the bus crash that happened recently. This film should be recommended for those who can appreciate small but very tight cinematography. There are many more examples than the scene posed in the last paragraph. I would also recommend this movie to those who understand and have experienced the minimalist style of film making. The movie is a good minimalist film, but I would not recommend it as the first minimalist film to watch. It can get brutal in its pacing at times and it is overall a bit boring as there is no clear action or plot. The film exemplifies a pure form of minimalism that some people cannot handle.

            Overall, the film is memorable for the oddities that it displays. One must be patient with the film because while it has dry comedy throughout, it also exemplifies extreme political messages that Puiu is trying to get across. The minimalist atmosphere and the drawn out narrative are all important aspects of Puiu's overall message. Saying the message would also be a spoiler as one would have to know the ending to fully try and pick apart what Puiu is trying to portray. To conclude this article, I would give the movie 7/10 based on the intricacies of the cinematography along with the satiric and dark style of humor. The story may lack a very interesting plot and as mentions many times, is exceedingly repetitive. The film's niche is in the way it takes an uninteresting plot and performs some sort of cinematographic alchemy to transform it into a gripping narrative.