Cinema
Death of a Cyclist
Muerte de un ciclista
Juan Antonio Bardem · 1955
Synopsis
María José, wife of a wealthy Madrid industrialist, and Juan, a university professor who owes his post to his brother-in-law, were engaged before the civil war and have become lovers. On the way back from a rendezvous, his car runs over a cyclist on a deserted road. Juan sees that he is still alive, but she urges him to drive on, and they flee. From then on, he is gnawed by remorse and thinks back over his past, she by the fear of being found out, all the more so as an art critic in her circle, Rafa, hints that he knows a secret.
Context
Co-produced by Spain and Italy, written by Luis Fernando de Igoa and the director, the film was shot in Madrid, in good part at the University City, with the Italian Lucia Bosè, dubbed into Spanish, and Alberto Closas. The censors restricted it to those over sixteen and the Church declared it gravely dangerous. It is seen as the first film of the Franco era to look at the civil war otherwise than from the victors' side. The editing links bourgeois and working-class milieus by abrupt cuts; in the United States, it was first released under the title Age of Infidelity.
Who it is for
A black-and-white drama, subtitled, which borrows from film noir; Francoist censorship sheds light on what is suggested rather than said.
Prizes and reception
International Critics' Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955; it is its director's best-known film.