Now while I admit that I have seen virtually no Romanian films, I was very reluctant to go to see this Cannes prizewinner at its London Film Festival showing nor at its limited cinema release, despite having heard raves about it, since I know myself well enough to realise that I have trouble at the best of times sitting still through any 150 minute movie. And now that I finally have viewed it, I must confess some disappointment since it arrived with so much hype and positive baggage.
First of all, apart from its length, it is not an easy watch. A 62-year old man who lives alone except for his three cats is feeling poorly, so he telephones for an ambulance which doesn't arrive. Meanwhile he nurses himself with poor-quality drink and whatever medication is at hand. Some hours later a neighbour finally gets an ambulance to take him to hospital (he has just about collapsed in the meantime) and here is where the sorry tale gets even worse. Despite a female paramedic who displays some sympathy and who stays with him without taking the simplest option of dumping him somewhere, he goes from pillar to post as various hospitals reject him for one reason or another and he is shifted from one to the next, encountering all manner of medical folk from the disdainful to the concerned, but without anyone taking in the urgency of his ailments. He doesn't actually die in this film, although we last see him alone on a hospital gurney awaiting the necessary operation, but we can take it as read that he isn't long for this world. The character's full name is Dante Remus Lazarescu which must be symbolic. Dante wrote about the circles of hell and Mr. L just might be experiencing these in the medical twilight of a very long night. The Remus, one of the founders of Rome, I'm not too sure about. As for Lazarus who rose from the dead, I somehow doubt that we are being presented with another likely instance.
It's a very sad film -- certainly not a black comedy as I have seen it described -- and possibly too realistic a depiction of what can happen with uncaring or over-worked, state-subsidised health workers. Not a pretty picture by any stretch of the imagination.
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