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Film details
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Featuring
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Country
Romania
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Year
2005
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Genres
Comedy Drama
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Type
Film
Alternative titles
- The DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU Alternative
- La MORT DE MONSIEUR LAZARESCU Alternative French
Introduction
“The movie’s staged hyper-reality offers a stunning dialectic between drama and artifice—where did Puiu find these actors? Ion Fiscuteanu in particular demonstrates an astonishing absence of vanity in the title role.”
J. Hoberman, Village Voice, 2006
The Romanian New Wave’s first flickerings date to the early 2000s, but it was this film’s Cannes success – it won the ‘Un certain regard’ award – that swivelled the international spotlight onto a country whose film output had hitherto been practically ignored.
It’s easy to see why it struck such a chord internationally: its almost real-time depiction of the final hours of an elderly hard-drinking loner as he has to negotiate the bureaucratic Bucharest healthcare system could be transplanted to almost any country in the world. The only even vaguely sympathetic character is the paramedic (Luminiţa Gheorghiu) who insists that her reluctant and colleagues take Lazarescu’s case seriously while they’re preoccupied with the fallout from a major accident.
The film was billed as a comedy, but the laughter is that of uncomfortable and sometimes painful recognition. It was the first of ‘Six Stories from the Outskirts of Bucharest’: the second was Puiu’s crime drama Aurora (2010).
The film’s long takes and ultra-realism would feature in many subsequent Romanian films, such as 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) and Boogie (2008).
Cast & Credits
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Cast
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Dante Lazarescu
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Mioara
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Sandu Sterian
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Mihaela Sterian
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Gelu
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Leo
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Doctor Ardelean
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medic at Spitalul Sf Spiridon
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Misu
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trial medic at Spitalul University
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Doctor Gina Filip
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Doctor Dragos Popescu
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Doctor Breslasu
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Mariana
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Doctor Mirica
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Doctor Laura Serban
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Doctor Zamfir
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assistant at Spitalul Bagdasar
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Marioara
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ambulance driver
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Robert
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echograph medic at Spitalul Sf Spiridon
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stretcher carrier, Spitalul Sf Spiridon
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assistant at Spitalui Sf Spiridom
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Doctor Kelemen
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assistant at Spitalul Universitar
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assistant at Spitalul Filaret
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assistant at Spitalul Universitar
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assistant at Spitalul Filaret
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stretcher carrier at Spitalul Bagdasar
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stretcher carrier at Spitalul Bagdasar
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Vecina
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DL Sandu
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Dna Sandu
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Smaranda
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medic at Spitalul Universitar
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patient at Spitalul Sf Spiridon
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assistant at Spitalul Bagdasar
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stretcher carrier at Spital Sf Spiridon
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stretcher carrier, Spitalul Universitar
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stretcher carrier, Spitalul Universitar
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assistant at Spitalul Universitar
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cast member
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cast member
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cast member
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cat
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cat
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cat
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Credits
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Unknown:
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Director
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©/Production Company
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Made with the support of
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Made with the support of
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Made with the support of
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Made with the support of
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Made with the support of
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Made with the support of
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Made with the support of
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[International Sales]
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Executive Producer
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Production Manager
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Production Accountant
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Production Accountant
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Production Accountant
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Location Manager
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Production Secretary
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Assistant Director (1st)
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Assistant Director (2nd)
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Casting Director
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Extras Co-ordinator
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Extras Co-ordinator
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Extras Co-ordinator
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Screenplay
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Screenplay
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Director of Photography
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Camera Operator
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Focus Puller
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Loader
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Stills Photography
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Editor
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Art Director
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Properties
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Properties
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Costumes
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Make-up
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Make-up
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Special Make-up Effects
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Hairstylist
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Titles
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Grading
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Colourist
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Colourist
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Laboratory
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Original Music
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Sound
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Sound
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Post-production Sound
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Medical Consultant
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Medical Consultant
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Medical Consultant
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Legal Adviser
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The Greatest Films of All Time 2012
Voted for by 8 critics and 4 directors.