MovieChat Forums > Moartea domnului Lazarescu (2005) Discussion > Director missed a point in my view

Director missed a point in my view

posted 18 years ago by fscat
7 replies | jump to latest

I just watched this movie and I've read alot about how the director wanted everyone to be upset at the Romanian doctors and their lack of love to Mr. Lazarescu. However, I didn't look at it like that. Yes, all the doctors "bedside manner" was cold and rude, no doubt about that. However, all of them save for the one in the 3rd hospital did their job to the best of their ability and situation they were in. Remember they were in a situation were there was that massive bus crash and they basically had to choose who was going to live or die, and to choose Mr. Lazarescu who was basically destroying himself anyway and these people who were dying out of no fault of their own, I guess it was a decision they felt that had to be made. Obviously the neurosurgeon in the 3rd hospital was rude and did not do his duty/job, no argument there. But everyone else did the best they could with the circumstances they were in my opinion. If anything you could argue that you can be upset with the hospitals and health care systems themselves for pushing these doctors to have to make these decisions on who lives or dies. But if Christi Puiu's point was to make me angry at the Romanian doctors, outside of the one from the 3rd hospital, he failed with me. Again I agree that the doctors could of been kinder, warmer, and less judgmental, but in the end what matters most is that they treat the patient. Now they didn't treat him, but they did the tests possible for the next hospital to treat him since they were unable to, at least that's how I took it.

[–] piccolo_k 18 years ago

The film doesn't criticise the doctors as much as the whole Romanian medical system.

[–] tudor_dimitriu 18 years ago

The whole thing is not about criticising doctors, or the system in the end. Of course, those layers exist. One of the hallmarks of good art is the existence of several layers to be tapped into by people of different tastes, backgrounds and education. Still, according to the director himself, at the core of the story is the natural, human, emotional connection (or lack thereof) in modern societies. In the end it's not the fact that the doctors don't treat him. You know he's a gonner the moment you find out he's got cancer. The real issue is the lack of communication and the fact that ultimately, he dies alone. Everybody else in the movie revolves around him, but except the nurse it's all mechanical and procedural. And even she's reserved enough.

[–] I_donthavefb_lol 18 years ago

If the director had caricatured all doctors as evil incarnate, that would have transformed his brilliant naturalistic work into a cartoon and shifted the focus on doctors, rather than Romanian institutions and society where it rightly belongs. It's the institutions and society that corrupts, not the innate personality of the doctors themselves.

But if Christi Puiu's point was to make me angry at the Romanian doctors, outside of the one from the 3rd hospital, he failed with me.

I think you should raise your expectations for medical care before it's too late!

Again I agree that the doctors could of been kinder, warmer, and less judgmental, but in the end what matters most is that they treat the patient.

Dude, Mr. Lazarescu's experience was a nightmare! Where do you live? Burkina Faso? He didn't get the TIMELY medical care he needed (not that it would have saved him in the end) and more to the point, he didn't get treated with dignity. The mind is part of the body: doctors can't treat patients the way car mechanics do automotive repair.

Most of the doctors in this film were grotesquely unprofessional and obsessed with protecting their own turfs and egos.

[–] the_nightfly-1 17 years ago

Dude, Mr. Lazarescu's experience was a nightmare! Where do you live? Burkina Faso? He didn't get the TIMELY medical care he needed (not that it would have saved him in the end) and more to the point, he didn't get treated with dignity. The mind is part of the body: doctors can't treat patients the way car mechanics do automotive repair.

You have to realize that in the emergency rooms, not only in the Romanian ones, the rule of thumb is "if it's not bleeding it's not really an emergency".

You should watch "Bringing out the dead", to get somewhat of a perspective on what goes on "behind the scenes" in an emergency room, "Moartea d-lui Lazarescu" only gives you the patient's version.

I didn't feel a thing for Mr. Lazarescu, he was the only one responsible for his situation, and I couldn't accuse the medics of not being sympathetic, when you're treating hundreds of patients a day you don't have the time or the energy to be sympathetic.

I'm not saying the current state of the health care system is great, but you're barking at the wrong tree when you're accusing the medics, they can only do so much with what they're given.

[–] m_ats 17 years ago

I also got a somewhat good "professional" opinion of most doctors, except of the resident neurosurgeon (whom I don't think is *real*).

And I live in Canada.

Of course, there are bureaucracy issues, etc.. The system portrayed in the movie is far from perfect.

[–] muzzak 17 years ago

Speaking of Canada, i recently saw Barbarian Invasions (really great Canadian movie) which also depicts a pretty grotesque image of the Canadian national healthcare system and I was a bit shocked that this is the situation in countries considered far more developed than Romania. My friend who I watched the movie with and who used to live in Canada assured me that it's pretty accurate. He had to wait, just wait, like Lazarescu, for a whole day in a hospital for someone to even ask him what was wrong with him.

Also, the world record (Guinness Book says so) for waiting in a hospital is held by a guy in Britain who had to wait about three days in a wheelchair until somebody noticed him. When he finally got attention and treatment, he went out and used his unusual record for criticizing the NHS. The result: the second time he only had to wait for two days...

But this is a bit besides the point. I think the point of the director was indeed to show the loneliness and lack of communication in our era. And he probably thought there's no better way to show that than setting the movie in a miserable, crooked medical system. Even if the doctors were professional, the point was to show them inhumane, not caring. Lazarescu's death was an unfortunate coincidence, caused by the many faults in the system and not the unprofessionalism of doctors. They are not paid to care but to do their job and I have the feeling, after experiencing our miserable state hospitals, that they take out all their frustrations caused by low pay and horrible schedule on the innocent patients. Nobody cares about the doctors either or at least that's how they feel. "I'll save your life and you'll go back to your drinking and doing nothing while I'll work my ass off saving other miserable alcoholics like you. I'm not paid enough to care too."

This is the environment where Lazarescu dies and, although it looks horrible, I think it's a mere exageration o the world we live in. Going back to "Barbarian Invasions", the character there is also alone in a cold hospital with nobody but his son at his side but he has the time and strength to get his loved ones close to him and in the end he dies at peace. Lazarescu simply didn't have the time and strength. I think his low voice and incoherence is clearly showing this. It's not that he's drunk or ill. He just can't communicate in this absurd world thus he dies alone.

[–] chuck-526 12 years ago

I hear an assumption that if every individual does a good job, then the system must be good (or in reverse, that if the system is bad, then the fault must be with the individuals in it). I don't buy it at all. It's too often the case with western health care delivery that even though every individual performs very well indeed, the net system doesn't work all that well.

The fact the system does a poor job does not necessarily imply the individuals in it are lazy or stupid or evil or whatever. I found the poor behavior of various medical personnel in this film to be nothing more than exaggerations to shed light on the real problem: the system itself.

As a former computer programmer and practitioner of "systems analysis", I look at our health care delivery system and just throw up my hands in total disbelief and disgust.