Product Description

Upper-class geometry professor Juan and his wealthy married mistress Maria José, driving back from a late-night rendezvous, accidentally hit a cyclist, and run. The resulting, exquisitely shot tale of guilt, infidelity, and blackmail reveals the wide gap between the rich and the poor in Spain, and surveys the corrupt ethics of a society seduced by decadence. Juan Antonio Bardem s charged melodrama Death of a Cyclist (Muerte de un ciclista) was a direct attack on 1950s Spanish society under Franco s rule. Though it was ultimately affected by the dictates of censorship, the film s sting could never be dulled.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

New, restored high-definition digital transfer

Calle Bardem (2005), a documentary on the revolutionary life and career of director Juan Antonio Bardem

Theatrical trailer

New and improved English subtitle translation

PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by scholar Marsha Kinder and a 1955 essay by Bardem on Spanish cinema

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36438 in DVD
• Brand: IMAGE ENT.
• Released on: 2008-04-22
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
• Original language: Spanish
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 87 minutes

Features

• Upper-class geometry professor Juan and his wealthy married mistress Maria Jose, driving back from a late-night rendezvous, accidentally hit a cyclist, and run. The resulting, exquisitely shot tale of guilt, infidelity, and blackmail reveals the wide gap between the rich and the poor in Spain, and surveys the corrupt ethics of a society seduced by decadence. Juan Antonio Bardem's charged melod

Amazon.com
Juan Antonio Bardem's Death of A Cyclist cinematically resembles a noir thriller while it makes a stark political statement against the Spanish government at the time of its conception, namely Franco's regime. Class inequities and distrust thematically color this film, starring Maria Jose (Lucía Bosé), whose insecurities about her infidelity to wealthy businessman, Miguel Castro (Otello Toso), are compounded when she and her illicit love, Juan Soler (Alberto Closas), accidentally hit a bicyclist while driving together. Panicking and leaving the cyclist to die, Juan and Maria are plagued by guilt and fear of discovery. An art critic and friend of Castro's, Rafael Sandoval (Carlos Casaravilla), serves as a corrupt conscience to the secret couple and threatens them with blackmail. Juan and Maria are thrust into his guessing game, in attempts to glean how much Sandoval knows. As Marsha Kinder mentions in her excellent essay accompanying this Criterion Collection release, Bardem's revolt lies not only in the plot and in his efforts to create a "realistic" Spanish film, but also by establishing characters who rebel against conformity—Maria against typical gender roles, and Juan, a liberal but poor Geometry teacher, against his upper-class family's desire for him to grow rich. Landscapes and sets, like the barren desert road where the accident takes place versus the lavish Spanish villa interiors, provide more visual fodder for Bardem's condemnation of power imbalance. Included as an extra is the short documentary, "Calle Bardem," (2005) comprised of interviews with Bardem's friends and colleagues that offer a clearer image of this highly-opinionated auteur. Death of A Cyclist's narrative is juicy in itself but is succeeded by its ambition to revamp Spanish cinema while speaking out against causes the director was dedicated to.--Trinie Dalton

Customer Reviews

Death of a Cyclist in an Age of Infidelity.
Although he directed nearly twenty films between 1951 and 1997, Juan Antonio Bardem (1922-2002), was a Spanish screenwriter and film director best known for Death of a Cyclist (Muerte de un Ciclista) (1955) and as the uncle of actor Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men). The 87-minute film--which is a thinly disguised attack on Spanish society under Franco's rule--won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, and tells the story of a wealthy geometry professor Juan (Alberto Closas) and his mistress Maria José (Lucía Bosé), who accidentally hits and fatally injure a cyclist while driving back from a late-night tryst. Because there are no witnesses to the accident, the two flee from the scene. At a cocktail party, a social rogue (Carlos Casaravilla) with a dislike for the rich then threatens to "ferret out" the couple's "unpretty secrets," pushing the film to its violent denouement. The film ultimatly becomes a lesson in corruption, decadence, and the division between Spanish rich and the poor. The film was originally released in the U.S. as The Age of Infidelity.

The Criterion Collection edition features a new high-definition digital transfer; "Calle Bardem" (2005), a documentary on the revolutionary life and career of director Juan Antonio Bardem; new and improved English subtitle translation; and a booklet featuring an essay by scholar Marsha Kinder and Bardem's 1955 call to arms for Spanish cinema.

G. Merritt

Ageless
Thank you Criterion; everything excels. Mr. Merrit's brief review is absolutely spot on. I would only add that the secondary story...the student...is exceptional and will affect you greatly.

NOTE: The politics of the time in Spain and Europe in general are apparent, but are only retrospectively interesting today. But complementary to this film so try to keep them in mind.

Decadence is beautiful
This is a beautiful black and white movie with beautiful people. Its undisputed star, Italian actress Lucia Bose, plays exactly the same character like in Michelangelo Antonioni's "Cronada di un amore" - a dissatisfied egotistical trophy wife of a captain of industry and trade. The noirish plot (cover up of an accident by the Bose character and her lover) gets a political slant as the distracted lover, a mathematician shoved into a position at university by influential relatives, does not pay attention to a woman student and let her fail at an exam. This leads to (comparatively tame) student riots in which the (stunningly well groomed) students ask for the lover's head. The dissatisfaction with social conditions in Spain of the 1950 permeates this movie. The settings in wintry Madrid (and surroundings) will haunt the viewer for a long time. The final scenes are pretty campy but the overall impression is a good one.