Overview
A darkly comedic journey through the absurdities of healthcare and loneliness.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Mild
- bleak
- deadpan
- melancholic
- serious movie night
- arthouse cinema night
What critics said
Critics broadly acclaimed its authentic cinéma vérité style, black comedy, and deeply convincing portrait of a medical emergency, while some found its extended runtime punishing.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
The ambulance journey and hospital encounters unfold with matter-of-fact performances, handheld immediacy, and documentary-like attention to medical procedure.
The prolonged medical emergency produces absurd, mordant humor through exhausted conversations, institutional routine, and emotional understatement.
Lăzărescu is moved from one hospital to another as staff debate responsibility while his condition deteriorates.
The film follows one night of ambulance transfers and failed hospital admissions in near-continuous temporal progression.
Films like The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, and why
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
shared Romanian New Wave realism, institutional indifference, dark humor, and sustained social discomfort
Rosetta
shared cinéma vérité immediacy, bleak social realism, moral pressure, and intimate human suffering
A Serious Man
shared deadpan black comedy, bureaucratic absurdity, and an increasingly harrowing journey through institutions
Amour
shared medical crisis, compassionate observation, and emotionally devastating naturalism
Movie Details
- Director
- Cristi Puiu
- Release Date
- 2005-05-27
- Runtime
- 154 min
- Rating
- 7.4 / 10 (205)
Cast
- Ion Fiscuteanu
- Luminița Gheorghiu
- Doru Ana
- Monica Bîrlădeanu
- Alina Berzunțeanu
- Alexandru Potocean
- Dana Dogaru
- Florin Zamfirescu
- Dragoș Bucur
- Mimi Brănescu
Common questions
- What is The Death of Mr. Lazarescu about?
- An elderly Romanian man’s desperate ambulance journey becomes a mordantly funny and devastating passage through institutional indifference.
- What is The Death of Mr. Lazarescu like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is The Death of Mr. Lazarescu violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in The Death of Mr. Lazarescu as mild.
- What did critics think of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu?
- Critics broadly acclaimed its authentic cinéma vérité style, black comedy, and deeply convincing portrait of a medical emergency, while some found its extended runtime punishing.
- Which films are like The Death of Mr. Lazarescu?
- Films with a similar feel include 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Rosetta, A Serious Man, and Amour.
- How long is The Death of Mr. Lazarescu?
- The Death of Mr. Lazarescu runs 154 minutes.
