Death Of A Cyclist

Death of a Cyclist (Muerte De Un Ciclista) (1955)

Runtime: 88 minutes

Directed by: Juan Antonio Bardem

Starring: Lucia Bose, Alberto Closas, Bruna Corra, Carlos Casaravilla, Otello Toso

From: Some Spanish and Italian companies

Late (Sunday) night this played on Turner Classic Movies; why not view a motion picture that won an award at Cannes, is a part of The Criterion Collection, and is directed by the famous Spaniard Juan Antonio Bardem? As I just discovered on Friday, Javier is in fact his nephew.

The title event occurs literally a minute into the film; after the accident, the couple in the car (Juan and Maria) elect to drive away and leave him there-despite him not being deceased at that point-as they are a man and woman having an illicit affair and this would of course expose that. DoaC is not just about the screws being tightened and the heat being turned up until it's about to boil over as the pair worry & are paranoid about the hit and run being exposed (not to mention the revelation of their relationship); social standing is also a key topic. Juan is a professor while Maria is a socialite. They get a dose of reality and become more familiar with the working class from their usual bourgeois trappings. It was in fact an attack on the Fascist regime that ruled at the time and it was still effective despite the obvious censorship that took place from the Franco government.


The movie was shot well by Bardem and it did poke barbs at the snooty rich people in Spanish society at the time; Juan mainly has his professorship due to the influence of a relative, after all. My favorite character was Rafa, a provocative art critic who constantly uses innuendo and irony to rile people up, and subtlety suggests that he somehow either has knowledge of the accident, despite the location being a rural road out in the Boonies, as my parents would say... or he suspects Juan and Maria are having an affair. There are several tremendous scenes-including the denouement-and this should be viewed to experience the sharp criticisms and the tension being ratcheted up and the moments I dare not spoil here.