Ion Fiscuteanu has died today

A good and modest actor has just passed away!
Rest in peace, Mr. Fiscuteanu.

I just have seen the (brilliant!!!) movie yesterday evening and today I found out he died a couple of days ago. I'm crying...

Saw "Mr. Lazarescu" yesterday and was simply enthralled. Didn't expect to be, even though I rented it with the highest expectations. But seeing its 150-minute length and having something of a thumbnail sketch of the film's premise, I figured, "It's Romanian, it's 2-and-a-half hours long, and it's about an old man being denied hospital access. How's that 150 minutes of interest? I don't think so."

Well, wrong again. It was riveting, engrossing, sad, darkly comedic at times, and essentially flawless. The actors - all of them - were excellent and the writing was remarkable, considering this soon felt more like a documentary than a drama (and I don't mean that negatively in the least). It was simply a film that had a level of verisimilitude that is seldom achieved.


The now late Mr. Fiscuteanu was equally flawless and captured - maybe, ultimately, too accurately - the slow, inevitable demise of a human being in a world alone except for the matter-of-fact angel of a Romanian EMT who was, at least, dedicated to her job.

What was truly remarkable - and a measure of the film's worth - was the fact that my 12-year-old daughter arrived at maybe 15 minutes into "Mr. Lazarescu" and after initial curiosity about the film's language and subtitles (did anyone else find the typeface annoyingly difficult to read?) stayed with the film until the end, equally enveloped in the story.

Time well spent among my wife and child and a good source of conversation afterward.

I just saw 'Moartea domnului Lazarescu' this last November on Duna TV, and now I hear with sorrow that Mr. Fiscuteanu has passed away. I grew up in Romania, so I knew his other film and theatre work as well, and always considered him one of the great Romanian actors. As sad as the news is, I'm also happy for him for having the possibility to depart after such a dignified performance in a widely-noticed, impact-making film. Which, by all signs, was one to bring new life to Romanian cinema.