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WRITING
REVIEWS
SILVER
BELLS WEDDING
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DEATH OF A CYCLIST
Director: Juan Antonio Bardem Writer: Juan Antonio Bardem and Luis Fernando de Ioga Cinematographer: Alfredo Fraile Composer: Isidro B. Maiztegui Cast: Lucia Bose, Alberto Closas, Otello Toso, Carlos Casaravilla, Bruna Corra, Julia Delgado Caro
"Spanish cinema is politically ineffective, socially false, intellectually worthless, aesthetically nonexistent, industrially crippled." - Juan Antonio Bardem Juan Antonio Bardem was an outspoken filmmaker who made the majority of his films during Franco's Spanish regime. What this meant was that his films, as with every other Spanish filmmaker of the time, were heavily edited by a politically oppressive censorship board. Originally titled Age of Infidelity, Death of a Cyclist was a film that was meant to be a critical examination of the social classes in present day Spain. It is a film rich in the neorealism style of long takes and long shots as well as deep in the themes and dynamics of the Film Noir movement. It would go on to be one of the first Spanish films to win the critic's prize at a major European festival, and is regarded as one of the pivotal films to launch modern Spanish cinema. The film begins with an interesting situation, as a bicyclist rides down the road and over a hill. We then hear a crash and a car speeds to the top of the hill and parks on the side of the road. Although, we did not see it, the car struck the bicyclist. The couple in the car includes upper-class professor Juan and his mistress Maria. We watch as they walk over and stand over the body of the cyclist, although we never see the victim, the camera focused solely on the couple. Maria begs Juan to leave the body of the cyclist, who is still alive, so their affair is not discovered. The two are filled with different levels of guilt when they learn the cyclist would die alone on that road, especially when a piano player begins to threaten Maria with extortion, claiming he saw her with Juan on the road that day.
While the film shows the rich and powerful in Spanish society, it shows them at their worst, their most deceitful and their most arrogant. The hero that comes out of this film is a man, very much like all the others, who is willing to step forward and go against the grain, against society, and against his own class. The egotism of the bourgeoisie is the area where Bardem is most content to attack the wrongs he saw existing in the time of Francoism. The issues approached in the film are based on taking responsibilities for one's actions and the duty one holds to do what is right, compared to what is convenient. The film is connected to the Spanish Civil War, as Juan fought for the Franco regime and while away lost his lover Maria, who married a rich man named Miguel. It is no coincidence the accident that killed the cyclist took place at a location where Juan fought in during the Civil War. The death of the innocent working-class man is contrasted figuratively with the deaths of the many people during the war. The film compares the choices that one makes, whether for righteous causes or for convenient causes, by comparing the way Juan dealt with the guilt to the way Maria did. There is a subplot involving a student whose grades were affected due to the lack of attention given by the distracted professor, Juan. He mentions to the girl that as he watches all her classmates gather round to support her in a protest, it made him remember what it was like to be young and have the fire to fight for what he believes. Juan becomes a man who believes what is important is to stand up for what is right, renouncing his class privileges and becoming accountable for his actions. Maria is the polar opposite, a person who will do anything necessary to save herself, and Bardem's idea of what was wrong with Spain during the Franco regime.
Unfortunately, the final image that Bardem wanted for the film - a concept that the rich and privileged prevailed in this society - was forced to be changed and another car accident was added at the end. Bardem was able to appease the censors as well as keep the tone of the story as the final shot you see in the movie is a reversal of the opening scene, and the actions of an anonymous Spanish cyclist who witnesses the accident shows what would have been the right thing to do in the situation. The scene is added to satisfy the Francoist cinema censors, as well as allowing the viewer to celebrate the comeuppance of the one truly unlikable character. The film is about class divisions, and the separation between the upper class, that lives life by their own rules, and the lower class, that doesn't even register important enough to save if it means inconveniencing oneself. No one comes out of this movie clean, and regardless of the insights a character might gain, no one has a happy ending. I do find it interesting that it is not the blackmailing Rafa who makes a difference in the story. He is a lower class individual and when he exposes the truth, no one will believe him. It is only when fate catches up to the bourgeois that the world is finally able to straighten itself out.
The Package Calle Bardem (2005) (44:01) - The documentary, directed by Alberto Leal, is basically a talking heads interview feature with Bardem's collaborators and peers, as well as critics and scholars. Both positive and negative critiques are brought out in the feature. It is all in Spanish and some of the subjects are just boring to listen to. PLUS: A 28 Page Booklet - The first essay is by scholar Marsha Kinder, and is an informative read dissecting the movie and placing it in context with both the work of Bardem and the cinema movement in Franco Spain at the time. The second essay is a reprinting of Bardem's "call to arms" for Spanish cinema, which is also a very interesting read.
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