The Death Of Mr Lazarescu (2005) DVD

The grinding ordeal endured by the ailing title character of "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," a thorny masterpiece by the Romanian director Cristi Puiu, concludes well after 3 a.m. in a Bucharest hospital as he lies dying, unattended on a gurney. That's more than five hours after this 62-year-old patient (Ion Fiscuteanu) is carted by ambulance from his shabby, foul-smelling apartment to the first of four unwelcoming city hospitals. As the hours slip away, his strength deteriorates and his speech declines from gnarly complaining to barely audible nonsense into silence. The two-and-a-half hour film views this late-night descent of the allegorically named Dante Remus Lazarescu through circles of medical hell observed with eyes that are dispassionate but far from cold. A sustained triumph of ensemble acting, the film seems so absolutely real it absorbs you into its world the same way a documentary like Frederick Wiseman's 1970 "Hospital" seeps into your consciousness.