After the award at cannes,many critics have rushed to declare this the greatest Romanian movie ever made.Me,for one,can't see what's so great about this picture,and I see no symbolism behind this.But at the TIFF film festival,it received an average 0f 4.58 out of 5.So,I probably am not getting something.Can anyone else clear this for me?
shareWhat was so great about "Les Invasions Barbares"? Yet, some ppl liked it enough to award it. I haven't seen this one yet. I'll get back with a comment after I see it.
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Passion. No one wants to finance the film of a passionless individual. What most people want is to ride your passion. They want to feel that they're part of something magnificent and exciting. And if you're not passionate - fake it. - R. Avary
Wow, wow, wow, wait a sec. A lot of things were great about the invasions. Most importantly, it was a heart-felt movie, portraying the fall of culture and moral values. Its uniqueness lies in its characters.
shareLet's be serious. What culture? What unique characters? That man arouse no sympathy whatsoever. He was a dull old man, with many flaws that made one want him to die faster, not feel sorry for him. He was useless to the society. He cheated on his wife, who was stupid enough to humiliate herself by allowing those other old women next to his dying bed... as if they were all one big family. Yeah, she loved him, but it makes one wonder what was there to love? They didn't take any pain into making the characters 3-dimentional. Everyone in that movie is one-sided, dull and flat, like a cardboard image. Even that druggie, who is, by far, the nicest of them all.
Take, for instance, "Mar Adentro", which is similar in subject, but is in every way superior to "The Invasions". "Mar Adentro" makes "The Invasions" useless. I can't wait to see "Mr. Lazarescu" now.
no, no!!!
Les invasions barbares is one the best movies i have ever seen... all those stories... and yes, the main character didn't necessarily deserve all the best in the world, but the way everybody forgot about their differences and came together to make his last days worth... i mean that is amazing...
a good movie is about the message beyond the story... and that message doesn't have to be grand, it can only be about love and friendship
i haven't seen moartea domnului lazarescu yet, but i will... all the publicity got me really curious, not to mention the awards and the bilboard all over town
I would give this movie a 6-7. The characters are lively and the actors very well suited. The filming perspective is quite daring. The acting is good. The only thing that disappointed me was the senseless, abrupt ending. People in theatres were not sure about leaving their seats, i think they expected more. I would have chosen a powerful and suggestive scene to end this movie, something more like the final shot in "Being there" (1979).
shareWhen someone dies, and senselessly, that leaves you feeling what?
Frustration, anger, repeated questioning as to "why?".
So... The ending does just that. Which is what the director wanted to happen.
I have a cousin who died in her sleep at the age of 22. Nothing can explain it. We spent thousands of dollars on tests, research... Nothing. She just stopped.
Bleu Cheese Salad Dressing is made on the Moon! My Uncle from Mars told me, so I know it's true!
there's no simbolism. just the truth. it's the romanian medical system. i'm fascinated about how someone outside the sistem can be so accurate in describing it
shareI also can't see what's so outstanding in this movie
it started with some awfull 'live-camera' work, wich was getting better till the end..
on the other hand the acting was getting worse.
the end was really dissapointing.. and the title is so uninspired.
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5 for camera
8 for acting
(except m. barladeanu wich was obviously embarassed by the camera ?:,, the blond skiny doc, and the next 2 docs.. the beer-guy and the blond chick)
6 for directing
8+ for the script
2 for sound
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I think it deserves a 7.2-7.4 overall
PS. remember this is an imdb rating and not a romanian movies top 100 or something
PPS. I have to agree it might be one of the best ro movies, tho.
Hi.
I didn't like the ending much. But then I thought it somehow made sense... becuse it was like a funeral ritual, cleaning him and putting a white sheet over him. You know, morgue like. They were already treating him like a lifeless object.
And I liked the title. Because "Death of mister Lazarescu" brings "death" and "Lazarus"(Lazar in romanian) in the same sentence.
well, I have to admit you're right about the 'ritual', and the white sheet made me think at the same 'morgue' thing.
as far as I remember, he almost died 1 sec, but he turned his head back up :).
I agree with 'death' and 'Lazarus' in the same sentence as making a really nice brain wave, but this movie still doesn't have a title :).. if you know what I mean.
:]
cheers
if you havent been "treated" in the romanian health care system its hard to see the point but this film is quite punchy and portrays the ugly truth about the state of the medical care in Romania...
i find the movie as a natural reaction to this state of decay (and corruption allthough not portrayed here) of human decency and professional commitment ... the ways docotrs behaved talked down on everybody including the staff is very poignant to you if you had the pleasure of hospitals in romania... these days you have to walk in with a bribe or your very likely to die waiting for someone to give you a consultation... (happened to a relative of mine once and i was shaken by the doctors attitude and lack of care (i'm not saying he has to truly care but at least dont disrespect patients)
-- as for the movie -- i felt it took to long to deliver the message which could have been done in half the ammount (and make it more cinema friendly) of time albeit the frustration slowly mounting as he was "rushed" from one hospital to the next was nicely done...
actors were solid with some of the most believable characters in a romanian movie in recent years... camera work was shoddy but maybe thats what they were after and the long cuts were probably part of that ...
overall i'm glad i saw it - i hope more people see it and that it raises awareness...
:)
I wasn't talking about the plot.. I actually rated like 8+ for the story, dialogues, and the screenplay overall.
I have nothing against live-camera or the 1shot long cuts.
but if you remember the beginning, the 1st 20 mins I guess, when he's alone in the kitchen making phone calls.. well that scene has the most uninspired, creativeless moment of the entire movie.. the camera simply shakes with no reason and the plot lack is obvious. live-camera is like a very personal 3rd person view (see NYPD Blue).. it's made to bring you closer into the story, it's far from being a simple noisy shake. this is bad for the camera man who didn't handle the shot, and even worse for the director because I'm sure he had a video assist.
on the other hand, I noticed a very nice moment at the last but one hospital, where mr L is in the left and an old man with his sick wife in the right, and the camera pans left-right switching the subjects in 1 cut... 8+ for that 1.
I understand the movie wanted to be, and it is a realistic one, wich makes the directing not very noticeable, but it missed some obvious issues.
the acting is very strong and real.. except a few performances :/
and let's be realistic until the very end,and talk a bit about the title.. mr L didn't die!! :)
where is the so called Death of Mr L.???
I'm sure the movie would've been better with a reversed timeline, like starting with mr L. dead in the 1st 5 mins or so.. like a clear, personal, directoral view concerning a realistic storyline..
it's just my opinion.
@calputeru
:) agreed with the camera work as being worked out as "personal" i liked it but i felt that this together with the overly long shots make the film a bit unnapealing (i wish more people would see it but its easy to be put off by a 3 hour slow paced movie)
:) agreed it wouldve probably worked in reverse too with the viewer pondering why nothing was done sooner :)
the actual death i think wasnt neccesary - i mean whatever the outcome of the surgery the point was made - there wasnt any hope left (even if he had survived surgery / probably paralized or smth / he wouldve ended up on deaths waiting list for sure)
I saw the movie Sunday afternoon (bad timing, - NOT a Sunday afternoon movie) and also think that the movie ends before Lazarescu dies. There were those, however, who thought that he dies when the nurse strips the gloves off her hands (remember the cracking sound and then all goes dark?). I didn't get the same message though, and me thinks the title isn't all wrong as L. is anyhow doomed (remember the diagnosis).
I find it rather charming that through the title, L. becomes a metaphore for anyone who enters the system under similar circumstances (let's not forget who is and is not representative in Romanian society) - his "death" begins (to my understanding) when he starts calling for an ambulance. From that point on, he enters a soulless, mean machine and while we watch him go through it, becoming more and more of the "piece of meat" we all are to most Romanian hospital staff, we already hope for him to die already and get it over with... But he doesn't, and that is heart wrenching, because he is left lying there, helpless and reduced to "Glasgow 8", waiting for an operation that will anyhow not save him, with no one to stand up for him.
This movie should be mandatory to watch by all medicine students in Romania...
This is the best romanian movie i have ever seen. But I have a suggestion: let's not give marks for camera, distribution, and so on. Let's look deep inside this theme and we'll find much more than some grades we've put on everything that is irrelevant.
We shouldn't comment this movie in such a manner, I mean honestly what can you say? What was the first thing you said after the movie ended? I stood quiet...
Tuesday, October 4.. 2005 BC., if I'm not wrong.
'Death of mr L' it is stunning, but not because of its qualities.
quote:"We shouldn't comment this movie in such a manner"
!?!?!?!? :/
pls tell me you're not serious.
remember the motion picture it is and it will always be a visual art.
anyways, I think I had enough posting about it.
"Can anyone else clear this for me?"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0456149/usercomments-4
-What would you like to have been?
-Everything you hate
if you want to see how a realistic, documentary look alike, movie should look like, check this out..
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377088/
if u happen to stumble upon this movie :
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402906/
don't miss it
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Live fast
die young
leave clean underwear
Scathing social satire. Incredibly keen observations that make the film look like a documentary. A work of existential horror.
Cache was another great film of 2005, but this film had the extra power of opening up a world that was completely new to me, and the whole documentary-realism style was very original, very fresh.
This movie really stayed with me, and it reminds me of the old joke about the difference between communism and capitalism according to party apparatchiks.
"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's the other way around." In other words, when it comes to social relations, how much has really changed in today's Romania?