My partner rented this through Netflix (we miss so many small films that race through town). I didn't know what to expect, but he _thought_ that it was going to be a comedy. It is not. There are no extras to help you figure out anything: a true 'no frills' DVD. No music soundtrack during the film, no English in the credits in case you want to knowwhat the one song at the beginning and the one song at the end were. In any case, I heard that the director was inspired by ER and wanted to make a Romanian version. That's a very good comparison--it's like a two & half hour ER episode with the little side stories and everything. Intensely grim, though. Naturalistic almost to the point of pain, as though you truly were just watching Life unfold...or rather, Death. Don't know how the director got those performances out of his actors. They are completely unconscious of the camera. It's unnerving, if you can last the whole length of the film.
Review of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
