Mort d'un cycliste

Let me mildly dissent from the majority of my fellow IMDBers below in mildly praising this good but not great film that is not content to be simply a solid noir with a beautiful, sensually decadent femme fatale and interestingly set at the height (or depths, depending on the depth of your antifa leanings), of Franco's Spain, but instead needs to show off its intellectual cred by going all "Crime And Punishment" on us with the attendant soul searching, breast beating and philosophizing which is bearable when Dostoevsky does it, 'cause he's a friggin GENIUS, but is a bit of a bore when essayed by Juan Antonio Bardem, who is not. Give it a B minus.

on the Franco dictatorship, the class system of Spain in that era, and how people are in their own microcosm, and live in their own world until it is shattered by crime.

Maria Jose Castro (portrayed by the lovely Lucia Bose) is married to wealthy Miguel Castro (Otello Toso). It is a marriage of convenience, she has everything she wants materially, but nothing of love or emotion left in the marriage. She spends her days in a circle of bored friends, attending lunches, but wishing to be with her lover Juan Fernandez Soler (Alberto Closas).

The cinematography here is intriguing and sinister. Stark landscapes, cold winter, yet the people involved are comfortable and corrupt, drinking and dining.

Of course the character of Rafa Sandoval (played by Carlos Casaravilla) is excellent and elemental to a pivotal part of the story. He has seen the couple in their car on the highway, but just how much he has seen he will not divulge to Maria Jose. It is an ongoing teaser that we watch in suspense...we are not certain what each character will do.

Juan Fernandez, a professor of mathematics is merely existing, he resents his job which was acquired through his in-laws. He is tired of keeping up appearances.

There is a twist and you should watch this film more than once for the subtle nuances and character actors who play a part in the mood.

It begins with the death of a cyclist, but evolves into study of society, politics, and how people act out to endure their mortality, or the prison of their mortality. In the end it is their choice. 10/10.

This academic film is based on real events about news publicized when a cyclist was smashed by a car which hits and runs . The car is driven by an adulterous couple formed by an University professor (Alberto Closas) and a beautiful woman (Lucia Bose) married to an important man (Otello) . Later on , they're blackmailed by a swindler (Carlos Casaravilla) .

This splendid drama develops the adulterous loves between a teacher full of doubts and a high bourgeoisie lady . Fine performances from Argentinian actor Alberto Closas as the guilty professor and Lucia Bose , recently his work for Antionini , plays as a selfish Femme-fatale . Secondary acting by Carlos Casaravilla as an excellent villain , Fernando Sancho as a cop and Manuel Alexandre at a special ending intervention . Atmospheric and Neo-realist cinematography by Alfredo Fraile and adequate musical score . The motion picture was well directed By Juan Antonio Bardem . This is a 'rara avis' film of the 50s because dealing upon an adulterous love , political events and murder . Bardem had to fight the censorship which didn't admit the adultery , love scenes , neither crimes and obligated a tragic end . This one is deservedly considered one of the best movies of the Spanish cinema . Rating : Above average , essential and indispensable seeing for Spanish cinema fans .

A mix of noir psychological thriller and political examination of class and privilege in Franco's Spain, this reminded me as much as anything of Antonioni's 'Story of a Love Affair', although I liked this even more. For me there were more thematic and emotional levels explored in more interesting ways.

The film is beautifully made with a striking use of transitions to keep us off base, and an alternating mix of neo-realist, and slick Hitchcockian camera work that evokes the separation of class in society.

The story is simple. A pair of upper-class lovers accidentally hit a cyclist on the highway, and leave him to die, for fear of being discovered as lovers and losing all they have in society and with each other.

The rest of the film is about both the moral questions of responsibility and ego versus a sense of communal responsibility, and the gut wracking tension as to whether the two will be discovered.

I was occasionally bothered by the heavy handedness of some of the film. Sometimes it was just a too on-the-nose politically ironic line, but particularly an important sub-plot about a student the male half of our anti-hero couple, has treated unfairly. This sub-plot, while beautifully shot and well acted, feels like it exists only to make political and thematic points, and pulled me out of identifying with the film on a human level. Likewise, a couple of crucial character twists, while interesting, feel forced or sudden -- more there to make a point then to honestly continue the narrative.

But these are small flaws compared to the film's great strengths, and it is very much worth seeing.

It's a great premise, and director Juan Antonio Bardem plunges us immediately into the drama of a pair of lovers who accidentally hit a bicyclist on a deserted road and then just leave him to die. As the story unfolds, we find out more these people and the setting itself. The man (Alberto Closas) is a math professor who got his job through his powerful brother-in-law, and the woman (Lucia Bosè) has been his lover since before the Spanish Civil War, but who left him while he was off fighting it in order to marry into wealth and a higher social standing. Both are thus privileged, but somewhat morally compromised even before the accident. By contrast, the victim is from a much more humble background, which we see when the professor tries to visit his widow. Still later, we find that the place where the accident occurred, on a road through a barren landscape, was also where the professor had been fighting in the war, and there is clearly meaning in that fact. (As an aside, the landscape may remind you of the 1973 Spanish film 'The Spirit of the Beehive', and there is something eerie and sad about these films made under authoritarian rule that seem to show the devastation of the spirit via this type of scenery.)

The pair are threatened when a pianist/art critic (Carlos Casaravilla) begins making oblique comments hinting that he knows something, and then later when the pair disagree about whether to admit what they've done or not. This tension is strong in the beginning, but falters a bit with an unnecessary subplot involving one of the professor's students, as well as in becoming a bit too much of a morality tale. It's also pretty clear what the art critic knows, but the pretense for ambiguity is carried on a little too long, and this interesting subplot and character aren't taken advantage of in better ways. It picks up towards the end though, with Bosè delivering some great moments through the coolness of her eyes, and a dramatic finish.

The film makes social points in showing how far the wealthy will go to obtain or maintain their position, and you can see in it political commentary too. After the war, society is stratified in unfair ways, with a big gap between the powerful and the poor, and indeed, the powerful can sometimes believe they are above the law. The scene of the crime being near a battlefield seems to mean that this horrifying but relatively small act is a microcosm of much larger crimes having been committed against Spain, or something along those lines. Seen from that perspective, perhaps the ending is less the natural conclusion of a morality tale, and more a subversive message, which was interesting to think about. It's when I consider these aspects and the courage it took for Bardem to make films like this under Franco that I liked 'Death of a Cyclist' best. As just a drama alone, it's probably just average, but it could be rated higher because of this context.