Cristi Puiu, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Romania,2005)
In The Death of Mr. Lazarescu we see a unique technique of filming. The story of the movie was driven from its name. It was the slowly death of Mr. Lazarescu, but that was not the only slowly thing that was going on. Puiu film the movie in a very slowly way, so he would bring us so close to the action. Was the intention of Puiu to picture what the reality of this life is? Or was the whole movie an irony of the governments who treats its people like a cattle. Is people the least concerns of the government, and if they are so, what is the government priority? Too many questions and the answer would be left to the audience them self, and each person has the right to view it in his/her point of view.
Puiu had a good ways of showing of what was going in the patience's mind. The camera was not steady. It use to shake as if it was a person who is walking with a little of balance. It was the thought of a sick person. The light was going on and off as if it was the hope and fears that use to flash back and forth in Mr. Lazarescu's head. The house was not clean and full of cats all around him.
The movie started with an old lonely man (Mr. Lazarescu) who was very sick. He called the ambulance, but they did not come. After that he asks help from his neighbors who did the best of what they can do. The processes of Mr. Lazarescu being sick until he was in the ambulance car took about one hour. The night was going slow for the person of pain and suffering. Pain in human being translate to an boring life, it brings a dark shadow to the soul just as the real night brings to world, with a peace in beauty in the second one and pain in the first one. Even in the ambulance it took a very long time to get to the hospital as if we were with them traveling in that night. Mr. Lazaresuc is an example of any person. This is life and it is beautiful, but harsh. It is like a beautiful flower with all the thorns around it. One day we might be in the position of Mr. Lazaresuc or even in a worst situation, and the sad part about it is that we cannot do any thing to prevent it from happing to us in the future. It showed us how to except the life the way it is until the last moments of our lives.
Mr. Lazaresuc is a man who had no one in this world except his daughter who left him to Canada . He was lonely in his own country. The governments do not care about the people and their suffering. It took for ever to the ambulance to get to there. In that same night that Mr. Lazaresuc was sick, a huge accident happens in which it made the hospitals full of those people. He went through different hospitals in that long night.
Furthermore, that was not the only problem; the doctors did not care about him and did not treat him well like the first doctor who did not care about him because he only thought that he was sick because he had been drinking a lot. Every one was making fun of him and giving him their precious advices. The nurses did not care abut the patience. They were worried about their personal problems. The most ironic part to me was that in some of the hospitals he visited, he was not accepted because of the accident. They would put the people of the accident first, but not him as if he was not in a serious situation just as one of them. The ambulance lady was with him all night. She went through the suffering of any patience that might be in a hospital one night. She was a nice person to him. She treated him nice with respect and care. She was close to us because of her humane personality that seemed if it was vanished from the others.
Puiu did a great job of filming in the hospital. We see and here other people talking. We get to know some of their problems, but not everything. It is exactly if we are in a hospital. We would here other people problems and concerns. Also some shots of the nurses and their problems. That was the long movie of a long night of a very slowly death of Mr. Lazarescu.
