James Quandt.(FILM: BEST OF 2005)

1 THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU (CRISTI PUIU) Olfactory cinema--one can verily smell the film's sodden protagonist--and a miracle of observational empathy. In our diminished culture, the title probably qualifies as a spoiler, but the inevitability of Mr. Lazarescu's demise does nothing to lessen the surprise of his squalid Dantean odyssey toward death.

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2 THREE TIMES (HOU HSIAO-HSIEN) Conscious summa or inadvertent sampler of Hou's career, his triptych of love stories opens rapturously and ends attenuated; no one in contemporary cinema comes closer to ...

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