A Morte de um Ciclista

This movie started well enough. With the death of a cyclist.

Man gets out of the car, horrified. Woman gets out and tells him they should get going, forget the cyclist. Cyclist dies. Couple feels guilty.

So far, so good. I thought I was seeing a first-class psychological thriller.

Then we meet the piano-playing weasel, Rafa. Who seems to know what happened and is holding it over the couple.

If the movie had continued on that path, we might have had a noir worth talking about.

Sadly, Commie Bardem must have used the rushes from the first part of the film to convince dictator Franco's henchmen to greenlight the film. Because it soon descends into a polemic about class. A very, very steep descent.

I mean, does anybody really care about Matilde the math student?

It's ends up being a lot of yackety-yacking and whispering in discreet corners of rooms. Stuck in the mud of its own thin premise.

I am good with the ending. It's how Bardem got there that's the problem.

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 .

This and his next film 'Calle Mayor' established Juan Antonio Bardem as one of the world's leading filmmakers although as a Communist his far from complimentary view of those who had enriched themselves under Franco's regime was hardly likely to endear him to the authorities. He was in fact arrested whilst filming 'Calle Mayor' and was still in prison when 'Muerte de un Ciclista' won the International Film Critics' Award at Cannes.

Thematically it is inspired by Tolstoy's 'Resurrection' and filmically shows the influence of Antonioni's 'Cronaca di un amore'. Indeed Francois Truffaut, never one to mince his words, accused Bardem of plagiarism. Granted, there are what one critic has referred to as 'reinventions of Antonioni settings' but for this viewer at any rate these would probably not have occurred to me had they not been pointed out and certainly did not lessen my appreciation of Bardem's film.

The main link of course is the presence in both films of the charismatic Lucia Bosé, playing on both occasions an adulterous wife. Her lover here is well played by Alberto Closas but his character's crisis of conscience and moralisings somehow lack conviction. As the idealistic Matilde the lovely Bruna Corra provides a counterpoint to the self-obsessed Maria of Bosé. It is however the Uruguayan character actor Carlos Casaravilla who registers most strongly as a 'camp' art critic whose bitterness conceals a painful loneliness.

What strikes one most about the film is its technical brilliance. Atmospherically shot by Alfredo Fraile, the framing, compositions and use of close-ups are excellent and with the assistance of Margarita Orchoa, the only editor with whom Bardem worked until her death in the mid-sixties, there is an extremely effective use of cross-cutting and abrupt jump cuts. There is alas a brief shot of the cameraman's hand in the back of Maria's car and one is surprised that the director allowed it to remain.

He was obliged to cut the film from 91 to 88 minutes and one is intrigued as to what those three minutes contained. Needless to say censorship of the time required Maria to be punished for her crime and the ending, albeit highly melodramatic, is well handled and supremely ironic.

Despite being derivative in parts, this remains a landmark in post Civil War Spanish cinema and it is to be lamented that much of this courageous artiste's subsequent work was affected by government control.

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.

A 1955 Spanish language film (from Spain) which finds a well to do couple (Albert Closas & Lucia Bose) hitting a bicyclist on the road one night & decide to flee from the scene of the crime. Once back in their respective corners (Bose is married & stepping out w/Closas) they both descend into their own moral quandaries w/Closas guilt ridden (heading to the victim's neighborhood to find out about the man) while Bose is blasé about the whole thing even though a hanger-on in her social circle insinuates he knows what happened. Closas is inconsolable however even suggesting towards the film's end to turn themselves over to the authorities which doesn't end well for him. Getting much mileage from guilt, director Juan Antonio Bardem (who turns out to be an uncle to Oscar winner Javier Bardem) milks the moody lighting for all its worth w/winning performances across the board especially Bose who is perfect as the femme fatale.