Death Of A Cyclist

While returning to Madrid after an ilicit tryst, a wealthy socialite housewife and a university professor accidentally strike a bicyclist with their car. Although they see that he is still alive after the accident, they know they cannot summon help for him without their affair being revealed. They drive away and leave him to die. After the bicyclist's death is reported in the newspaper, the pair deal with ever-rising tension, borne from their fear that their deeds will be exposed.



Overview
Juan Antonio Bardem's poison-penned melodrama about amorality among the Spanish bourgeoisie has been given a splendid DVD release in this edition from the Criterion Collection. Death Of A Cyclist has been transferred to disc in its original full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and while the print used for this release shows some faint signs of wear here and there, most of the time the source materials are excellent and Alfredo Fraile's noir-style photography is richly detailed and with a fine range of grey tones. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Mono, and the sound quality is quite good for a film of this vintage. The dialogue is in Spanish, with optional English subtitles. As a bonus, this edition also features Calle Bardem, a documentary produced for Spanish television in 2005 that looks back at Bardem as an artist, a friend and a political activist. The accompanying booklet includes Bardem's controversial 1955 essay on the state of Spanish cinema and an appreciation of Bardem and Death Of A Cyclist by Marsha Kinder. While not well known in the United States, Death Of A Cyclist was a crucial work in the Spanish cinema of the Fifties, and Criterion has done a fine job of presenting it in its best possible light.