August 2006Issue 392



The Death of Mr Lazarescu

directed by Cristi Puiu

Product information
Catalog #: TVD2017
Star rating
****

The Death of Mr Lazarescu

Wow – we know what happens in the end; it’s about the last hours in the life of a lonely boozy widower; and it’s over two-and a-half hours long, with long stretches in real time. Maybe that doesn’t sound appealing. Surprisingly, though, it’s often funny, never less than absorbing, and it stays with you. Its impact is glancing, gradual, accumulative as Mr Lazarescu encounters people to whom he’s either peripheral, such as his neighbours, or who meet him professionally – ambulance workers, administrators and medical staff.

Of course, everyone is different – one person more understanding, another kinder, more tolerant, another livelier, more cheery, or funnier. Yet, though everyone does their job to the letter, to no-one does Mr Lazarescu really matter. Procedure and professionalism rule, but no-one connects. A sobering, trenchant, compelling film.




also by...
THIS AUTHOR

Fast Food Nation
Customers, workers and animals suffer.

Bamako

Ghosts

Apocalypto

Language Tools
Powered by Ultralingua

Join over 10,000 people just like you. Get e-mail updates about new content, issue alerts, contests, and more!

other articles
FROM THIS ISSUE

One laptop at a time?
A small but powerful $100 laptop designed for school children in the Majority World.

Bolivian land returned to the people
Two million hectares have been earmarked for women and indigenous peoples.

Paradise Regained
Chagos islanders resist superpowers

The trouble with models
View from Lagos by Ike Oguine

The privatization of Patagonia
Fences are marching across the Patagonian wilderness, displacing indigenous peoples and turning pure water into private property. Tomás Bril Mascarenhas reports on another conquest, this time by foreign investors.

recently
IN THIS COLUMN

Our Daily Bread
Industrialized food production

No Country for Old Men
The new Coen Brothers film

Black Gold
by Marc and Nick Francis

Manufacturing Dissent
by Rick Caine and Debbie Melnyk

Jesus Camp
directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

The Witnesses
The Witnesses directed and co-written by André Techiné






Voices from the margins:

Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.