The Frame

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this film. It’s certainly unlike almost anything I’ve ever seen. Romanian cinema is apparently undergoing a “new wave” of sorts, and this film is in the vanguard of it. Mr. Lazarescu is an elderly man who starts throwing up blood one day, and his neighbors finally call an ambulance. Lazarescu insists its just an ulcer, but the EMT thinks it might be cancer or something, and she tries to take him to the hospital. And every hospital turns him away for one reason or another, all night, despite the fact that he’s steadily getting worse. It’s an indictment of the Romanian healthcare system for sure, but I think it may be more than that…precisely what, I don’t know. A meditation on death itself, perhaps. The style, though, caught me completely off-guard. It’s so very realistic that it would be easy to mistake it for a documentary. The actors don’t act like actors at all, a lot of the dialogue doesn’t feel written, and the cinematography is bare-bones. I’m not sure I really liked it, but I’m glad I saw it.
Above Average