427 Death of a Cyclist

[rohmerin]

Bienvenido, Mr. Marshall[/i], a satirical look at one Spanish village reaping the benefits of the Marshall plan. Anybody familiar with this one?

Of course, with El verdugo, it's our best known classic film, always voted ij all top 10 Sp.movies. It's an excellent comedy. But for foreigners, I don't know if you can understand all the subtext with the accents, Franco's parody in the balcony, etc.

It's a shame that the best Sp. films are not shown abroad.

Another shame is that the best DVDs are from abroad, and I had to import this Bardem's masterpiece because in Spain classic Sp. films on dvd are rubbish.

If somebody can watch Calle Mayor, or Nunca pasa nada, please, do it. Nunca pasa nada is in a drama what Pietro Germi's Signore e signori is in comedy. To me, it's the best Bardem's film, both Spanish and French spoken, with Jean Pierre Cassel and Julia Gutiérrez Caba great performances, and ¡¡¡¡ music from Georges Delerue ! I did the page on wikipedia for it.

[GringoTex]

I very much wanted to like this one. I love what little Spanish cinema I've seen and was hoping to fill the gap between Las Hurdes and Viridiana.

I hated this film- found it ponderous, primitive and preposterous. It feels like 40s noir without the humility or the humor. Or Fritz Lang without the talent. Every frame is pregnant with still-born composition. The actors are tiresome and heavy.

I've been on a 70s Chabrol kick lately, and that can't help much either.

Maybe it was impossible to make good films under Franco before he mellowed out.

Right after I finished this one, I put on Bunuel's Susana. Glorious filmmaking. If Bunuel couldn't do it under Franco, why should we expect Javier Bardem's dad to do it?

[gubbelsj]

If Bunuel couldn't do it under Franco, why should we expect Javier Bardem's dad to do it?

It should be noted that Juan Antonio Bardem is / was Javier Bardem's uncle, not father.

[domino harvey]

All the more reason to not expect his father to have succeeded!

[jbeall]

Well I quite liked it. The cuts were jarring for awhile, but once you get into the rhythm of what Bardem's doing, I felt that it worked really well (although I did have to go back and re-watch the first 20 minutes).

And maybe I'm too used to idiots getting politically offended by trivialities (for example, a certain candidate's lack of a flag lapel-pin), but I was a little surprised that Bardem got away with some of the more political overtones, esp. the references to Juan and his brothers' part in the Civil War. Was this film censored at all?

[aox]

I really loved the editing of this film. The cuts in between scenes (once you got used to them) were very unique (at least in my experience), and I thought they were ultimately refreshing.

I have heard the ending is tacked on because of Franco, so I am don't know how I feel about the very last scene. I think I almost would have liked it better if they ended it after she gets in the car and does the final deed. (sorry for the ambiguity, but I don't know how spoilers are treated on this board yet).

I thought the technical style of this film was delicious.

[jojo]

Aside from the bourgeoisie class-conflict content, this is very much in the vein of a typical Hollywood noir from the 1940s in style, in tone, in look. I thought it was a really polished production, but perhaps a bit too by-the-numbers to be considered a genuine classic.

It's still a very well made film, and it's probably not surprising that I felt the strongest parts were the interpersonal conflicts outside of the main murder storyline.

[ando]

Last night was my first viewing of a Bardem film. I had heard that Bardem was a bit of an ideologue, but this film is not a polemic but any means - and it isn't a terribly sophisticated critique either. The icy beauty of Lucia Bosé is the most memorable aspect of this tepid melodrama-thriller which delights primarily through cinematographer Alfredo Fraile's stunning black and white photography. Bosé is such a beautifully selfish bitch throughout that the biggest comeuppance is watching her dangling dead from an upended car at the end of the film. It's the biggiest thrill from this rather obvious ploy by Bardem to expose the depravity of the mid-twentieth century Spanish bourgeoisie. It's a tall order, if that's really what he's up to - especially with this set of grown-up, dressed up children. None of the characters are explored in depth. Bardem certainly isn't subtle in revealing their fears/anxieties (there's one crude sequence where Rafa, the dandy blackmailer is shot in alternating close ups whispering accusations in the ear of each of the characters involved in the love trist), but the characters are never sympathetic. The adulterous couple end up dead and who cares? Certainly not the cuckold husband. And neither, I strongly suspect, will you.

[aox]

Keep in mind the end (her death) was tacked on. Forced by the Franco Fascist Censors on Bardem.

[jojo]

Are the characters SUPPOSED to be sympathetic? Characters in this type of genre are rarely ever intended to be sympathetic.

[aox]

I know this is soooo far in advance, but BAM is playing this film one night only on June 17th here in NYC.

This film got kind of a chilled reception around here, but I thought I would throw it out there. I think, as I am sure I have said, that this film is magnificent.

[dad1153]

I DVR'ed an IFC showing of "Death of a Cyclist" last September (long before the channel went into the shitter) and I watched it over the weekend. I'm as big a fan of Spain cinema as anyone else around here and have no trouble reading between the lines what filmmakers from that era had to do to get around the Franco regime's censorship. But this movie left me cold, unmoved, bored to tears and desinterested. Maybe if Juan had a fling with Matilde it would have spiced things up dramatically (and given María José a stronger reason for doing to Juan what she does before the end) but that would have gotten in the way of Bardem's portrayal of Juan as one of the most inner-conflicted, guilt-ridden, middle-class pussies to appear in a Spaniard flick. Can't be too mad at the way Fernandez Soler portrays Juan (he was only giving Bardem what he wanted) or at Lucia Bosé for delivering one cold, sexy portrayal of a woman for whom class status is worth cover killing for and, in the end, setting up her and her lover's demise (I actually cheered loudly at the end; Bosé dangling from the wreck also happened to be the prettiest, best-framed shot of the whole movie). Even at 84 minutes though this felt twice as long. Basically what I got from "Death of a Cyclist" was that Bardem really liked Hitchcock, really liked Hollywood film noir thrillers and really felt like hammering his viewers with the social class pettiness of his characters relentlessly. Bunuel and Saura at least clouded their criticism of their targets under enough mise-en-scène technique and thematically entertaining stories/characters that not even the censors picked up on them (or if they did they weren't stinging enough to merit removal). Guess I have to watch more (uncle) Bardem flicks to see what's so great about his films that didn't come through in this one for 'mua.'

[mfunk9786]

(long before the channel went into the shitter)

Says the guy using the phrase "went into the shitter"

[domino harvey]

I hated this film- found it ponderous, primitive and preposterous. It feels like 40s noir without the humility or the humor. Or Fritz Lang without the talent. Every frame is pregnant with still-born composition. The actors are tiresome and heavy.

Finally got around to this one and yep, agree 100%, this was laughably awful. I'm utterly bewildered at how many people in this thread tried to float a line on this being anything but a tepid Xerox of far better American noirs, only filmed with nonsensical scene bridges and the most hilariously overwrought emoting seen since sound came into play.

[whaleallright]

It's acknowledged as an influence in the notes, but I was still surprised by just how much this film owed to Antonioni's STORY OF A LOVE AFFAIR -- so much that, for the first half especially, it's almost a remake. The connection is of course made more palpable by the presence of Lucia Bose in both films, in similar roles. Bardem's key change is to add a pronounced layer of sociopolitical observation (one might say didacticism) to Antonioni's melodrama. I liked this much better than the poster above, but of course it doesn't have Antonioni's stylistic filigree.

I only know a little about Franco's Spain, much less film censorship under that regime, but it strikes me that the film's critique of elites is vague enough that it could probably function for audiences as either critical of or consonant with Francoist ideology.