lasttimeisaw Spanish writer-director J.A. Bardem's (yes, he was the uncle of Javier Bardem from maternal side) guilty conscience drama stars Italian belle Lucia Bosé as Maria Jose, a young woman who is married with a rich husband Miguel (Toso), but on the quiet, she rekindles the affair with her old flame Juan (Closas), who is stuck in a job as a university's adjunct professor, which he doesn't like, by dint of nepotism which he also consciously detests.In the stark opening shots, we see a cyclist insouciantly riding out of the low-hanging frame, then a vintage car rushes from the opposite side, and it abruptly stops, viewers don't directly witness the accident, it is Maria Jose, who is in the driver's seat with Juan riding the shotgun, they are heading back to the city from their regular tryst, and manifestly, Bardem informs us Juan is the one, whose conscience encourages him to rescue the still-breathing cyclist, but Maria Jose, in a classic femme fatale mold, simply nips the idea with her dour look and both leave hurriedly from the scene, hoping that they haven't been seen by any curious onlookers.Lucky for them, it turns out nobody witnesses the accident (claims by the newspaper), the cyclist died, but paranoia starts to gnaw at the two lovers, a slimy art critic Rafa (Casaravilla), a frequent guest of upper-class parties which Maria Jose and Miguel often hang out at, or sometimes host, sneakily suggests that he has seen and known something despicable between Maria Jose and Juan, which drastically pesters a high-strung Maria Jose; while Juan, distracted by the escalating guilt, one-sidedly halts the exam of a student Matilde (Corrà), which eventually stimulates a mass protest from the students, yet, on a brighter side, it reignites Juan's derailed moral sense, he prepares to convince Maria Jose to turn themselves in for the crime, but, is she ready to give up all the glittering trappings of an affluent marriage? The reactions to the opening accident presage the film's finale, regardless, they must pay for their misdeeds, Jardem will use whatever comes handy to let poetic justice reign in the upshot.It seems that subtlety and rhetoric is not Jardem's strongest suit, adorned by a neorealism- inspired efficiency and highly expressive close-ups to follow the characters' movements and actors' (sometimes hammy, I'm not referring to you Mr. Casaravilla) delivery, the film sticks to a conventional and even somewhat stiff narrative arc without intricacy to animate the pair's doomed downward spiral (admittedly, my eyelids were struggling for separation in the scenes where Juan experiences a facile epiphany), a doe-eyed Closas and an over-mature Bosé cry out for the potency of their professed affection, which should've made the denouement more poignant. Overall, DEATH OF A CYCLIST stings as Jardem's diatribe against the decaying and morally- corrupted upper-class of Spain under Franco's dictatorship, only it seems a shade stilted from the eyes of a today's first-time viewer.

rcj6 Juan Antonio Bardem's 1955 pelicula spectacular, Muerte de un ciclista, is a golden example of mid- twentieth century Spanish cinema going against the Franco grain. Bardem endured multiple battles with Spanish censors, and as many know he had to completely alter the ending in order to release the film in Spain.The corruption and lack of ethical and moral character of Spanish bourgeoisie is a main theme throughout. The two primary characters, Juan and Maria-Jose, refuse to deal with the moral consequences of hitting a cyclist and leaving him to die. In the beginning, both are too caught up in the selfishness of their own spoiled lives to be troubled by "the nuisance" of the cyclist's death. While Juan eventually has an epiphany that involves 'purifying' his corrupt ways by coming clean to the police, Maria-Jose is keen on keeping her wealthy and privileged position intact at all costs, even if it means murdering her long term lover, Juan.Many viewers have commented Muerte de un ciclista's end was simply too compromised by Francoistic constraints put on Bardem (the 'bad' lady dies after she murders the 'good' man), but I feel he did extremely well considering the dictatorship surrounding him as he made the film. With regards to the ending, I think Bardem's angle was more subversive and future-thinking than merely 'righting a wrong' to pacify conservative falange-Catholic values. Notice the intertextual elements of Maria-Jose's extreme close up shots when she's hanging from her car. As Jo Evans noted in the article, "Sex and the censors: the femme fatale in Juan Antonio Bardem's Muerte de un ciclista", this cinematic moment "can be considered a reference to Mussolini's executed mistress Carla Petacci, hanging upside down in the Piazzale Loreto next to her lover, Franco's former ally." Bardem could have shot Maria- Jose's body in a variety of creative death poses, but he chose this one in particular to include in the film. Thus Bardem shows in these final moments his wish for death to the corrupt bourgeoisie, and the possibility of death to Francoist Spain, Italy's one time fascist mistress.

t_zz Great film; a bit long. And I want a happy ending. And where is the colour?A short introduction about colour: Color or colour (see spelling differences) is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, yellow, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light (distribution of light energy versus wavelength) interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors. Color categories and physical specifications of colour are also associated with objects, materials, light sources, etc., based on their physical properties such as light absorption, reflection, or emission spectra. By defining a colour space, colours can be identified numerically; for example, by their unique RGB and HSV values (see List of colours).Typically, only features of the composition of light that are detectable by humans (wavelength spectrum from 380 nm to 740 nm, roughly) are included, thereby objectively relating the psychological phenomenon of colour to its physical specification. Because perception of colour stems from the varying sensitivity of different types of cone cells in the retina to different parts of the spectrum, colours may be defined and quantified by the degree to which they stimulate these cells. These physical or physiological quantifications of colour, however, do not fully explain the psychophysical perception of colour appearance.The science of colour is sometimes called chromatics. It includes the perception of colour by the human eye and brain, the origin of colour in materials, colour theory in art, and the physics of electromagnetic radiation in the visible range (that is, what we commonly refer to simply as light).

geneven These deus ex machina endings are simply a reminder from the director: this is a movie. Sure, it's a shock, but there you have it.I found this to be a wonderful film, even more so in that the Spanish (with subtitles) was easy enough that I could understand most of it.I don't think one has to be embroiled in the politics of the time to understand it. Like all great art, it works on many levels. The lead actress is not just selfish, she represents the life force -- the will to succeed, accompanied by the corruption that goes with all success. By the same token, the hero could be seen as finally possessed by a death instinct, the urge to purify oneself by relinquishing all desire to live normally.I was rocked by many little surprises during the film. I liked the moment at the end where the actress plays with the different options open to her as she turns the key. This is no doubt far-fetched, but I remember a scene in King of Marvin Gardens when the actress plays with the gun and chatters about what might be done with it.The critic/blackmailer was an amazing actor, and it was a pleasure watching the change of attitude in the woman who was failed in the course but who came to admire the teacher responsible for her failure. I liked the hero's talking about our repeating mistakes like bugs running into a mirror, but how the glass had been broken. I remembered the many Bergman moments with insects running into glass -- I think there was one in Passion of Anna, for example.