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• Death of Mr. Lazaresu

  2007-10-05 12:20AM / 標準BLOG / 會員可以看
  5個評論

  I'm at an editing gig right now where I'm waiting around a lot so I have a lot of time to post...
  
  A friend once said that a film teaches you how to watch it. I think it's true but it definitely requires patience with a film. But with our media saturated world, I think patience is one thing people are running out of when it comes to visual media.
  
  I just finished watching a beautiful film called THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU upon the recommendation of a friend that really does require the audience to learn how to watch it.
  
  
  
  
  It's 150 minutes long and shot verite style as an sick elderly man in Romania tries to get treatment for his ailments and becomes shuffled around the vast bureaucracy and arrogance of the medical industry over a single night. It is all long observational takes that focuses on the small, accidental moments. I admit feeling extremely frustrated with the first 15 minutes, but then something strange happens where you just fall into the film. As they get turned away from hospital after hospital and his diagnosis gets steadily worse and worse, the long takes builds the frustration and suspense in a good way: you want someone to take care of this man but he is forced to wait and wait and wait and we are waiting with him and it becomes unbearable. The watching of the film isn't unbearable, rather it is the way he is being treated and, aesthetically, the oblique observational style really captures and delivers that urgency and need and the obstacles that stand in between him and the help he needs.
  
  I really recommend watching it but again, it requires your patience and investment but it will be rewarded.