The Kid with a Bike

The Kid with a Bike

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Luc Dardenne
Produced by Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Luc Dardenne
Denis Freyd
Written by Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Luc Dardenne
Starring Thomas Doret
Cécile de France
Cinematography Alain Marcoen
Edited by Marie-Hélène Dozo
Production
company
Les Films du Fleuve
Distributed by Diaphana Films (France)
Release dates
  • 15 May 2011 (2011-05-15) (Cannes)
  • 18 May 2011 (2011-05-18) (France)
Running time
 87 minutes
Country Belgium
France
Italy
Language French
Budget €5.8 million[1]
Box office $5.2 million[2]

The Kid with a Bike (French: Le Gamin au vélo) is a 2011 drama film written and directed by the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, starring Thomas Doret and Cécile de France. Set in Seraing, it tells the story of a 10-year-old boy who turns to a woman for comfort after his father has abandoned him.[3]

The film was produced through companies in Belgium, France and Italy. While The Kid with a Bike does not deviate from the naturalistic style of the Dardenne brothers' earlier works, a comparatively bright aesthetic was employed, as well as a screenplay inspired by fairy tales. Unusually for a film by the directors, it also uses music. It premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and was co-winner of the festival's Grand Prix.

Plot

The story begins with Cyril, a 12-year-old boy in foster care, searching for his father and lost bike. Cyril escapes the foster home to try to find his father at his old apartment. When the caretakers find him, Cyril flees to a doctor’s office nearby, where he grabs onto a woman in the waiting room. Trying to alleviate the situation, the caretakers take Cyril to the empty apartment, confirming that his father has really abandoned him.

The next morning, the woman from the doctor's office, Samantha, shows up with Cyril’s bike. She says she bought it from someone in the projects, but Cyril thinks it was stolen from his dad. He likes Samantha though, and asks if she would take him in on weekends. She agrees and Cyril begins to spend much time at home and in her beauty salon. He has a bedroom all to himself in her home although he does sneak out of bed and go to Samantha's bedroom at least once most likely seeking comfort but runs back to his own room at the last moment, runs errands, plays with neighborhood children even making a new friend, Mourad, and is for a short while content and happy well cared for by Samantha although her manfriend is often upset with Cyril. Later, through an old personal ad, Cyril discovers that his father actually sold his bike. With Samantha, Cyril is able to finally track down his father. However, his father isn't happy to be found and tells his son never to come back. This unsettles him greatly and ends his short period of true carefree childhood.

Cyril, heartbroken by his father's rejection, turns to Samantha for comfort. But despite Samantha's care, Cyril is soon taken under the wing of Wesker, - an adopted pseudonym from the Resident Evil character - a local gang leader known as "The Dealer". One night rather than go out to a movie with his new friend and the boy's parents as he has been invited to do, Cyril throws a temper tantrum and demands to be allowed to go off out to roam the streets alone instead. He doesn't tell Samantha that he's supposed to meet Wesker to commit a crime of assault and theft, but she figures out that something is going on, refuses him permission, and tries her hardest to keep him indoors by blocking the doors. In frustration and uncontrolled anger, Cyril screams he does not want to be with Samantha anymore to try to manipulate her, but she tells him to go right ahead and call the orphanage's director to come pick him up if that's what he wants, but he won't be leaving the house to run the streets like a hooligan regardless. His anger boils over and in a last ditch effort to get his way, Cyril stabs Samantha on the arm with a pair of scissors and bolts out the door while she's crying and in shock. At The Dealer’s prompting, Cyril robs a newsstand owner and his son, knocking them down with a baseball bat. The Dealer, fearing Cyril had been identified, forces him to keep quiet and keep the money. Cyril tries giving it to his father only to be rejected and chased away as his father does not want to get caught by the law. Dejected, Cyril returns to Samantha and finally accepts her care for him. He apologizes for hurting her arm. The robbery is settled through mediation, where Cyril apologizes personally to the owner, who accepts, but his son does not and, in a chance encounter, tries to get his revenge. In the ensuing chase, Cyril climbs a tree and falls when struck by a rock the son throws. While he lies unconscious, the owner and son discuss what lies to tell the police and dispose of possible evidence that could be used against them. While they're talking, Cyril regains consciousness and walks away, having apparently decided to move on with his life.

Cast

Production

Luc Dardenne said that he and his brother Jean-Pierre had for a long time had the idea of a film about "a woman who helps a boy emerge from the violence that holds him prisoner."[4] Writing the screenplay took one year including a few breaks. In the earliest drafts, the character Samantha was a doctor and not a hairdresser. The script was structured with a fairytale in mind, where the boy would lose his illusions and Samantha would appear as a fairy-like figure. By not explaining much about the characters' past and psychology, the brothers aimed to avoid sentimentality.[4] Throughout the writing process the brothers strove to maintain a strong clarity in the overall work and to avoid gloom, which is why the brothers, according to Jean-Pierre, decided to omit "any form of vulgarity in the teenagers' language, even though they're street criminals."[5]

The film is a co-production with 46% investment from its directors' Belgian company Les Films du Fleuve, 44% from its French Archipel 35, and 10% from Italy's Lucky Red. It received further funding from the CNC, Eurimages, Wallimage, Radio Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française, and the Belgian French Community.[6][7]

Cécile de France was offered the role of Samantha soon after the screenplay was finished, as the brothers believed she would be able to portray the kindness of the character with her body and face alone. For the casting of the boy, Cyril, the production team held around 100 auditions. Thomas Doret was the fifth applicant the brothers met, and according to Jean-Pierre, "it clicked right away."[4] The team rehearsed for a month on the actual sets in full costume.[4]

The 55-day shoot commenced in Belgium in August and ended 15 October 2010.[4][7] It was the first time the Dardenne brothers made a film in the summer.[4] The film was made under the production title Délivrez-moi! which means "Set me free!"[8]

Unusually for a film by the Dardenne brothers, there is music in the film. According to Luc, they hesitated for a long time, but eventually decided that music would serve the film's structure: "In a fairytale there has to be a development, with emotions and new beginnings. It seemed to us that music, at certain points, could act like a calming caress for Cyril."[4]

Release

Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Thomas Doret, Cécile de France and Luc Dardenne at the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of the film

The film premiered in competition on 15 May at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.[9] Cinéart distributed it in Belgium and Diaphana Films in France. The premiere in both countries took place on 18 May.[10] In Belgium, the film was launched on 27 screens and entered the box-office chart as number six, with a weekend gross of 70,768 euro.[11] In France, it was launched in 172 venues and had an attendance of 107,763 the opening week, which also resulted in a sixth place on the domestic chart. One week later the number of screens had been increased to 215, and the total attendance reached 209,725.[12] In Italy, the film was released on 18 May through Lucky Red.[10] Sundance Selects acquired the distribution rights for the United States.[13] The film will be distributed in the United Kingdom through Artificial Eye.[14]

Reception

Critical response

The film received near universal acclaim. It scored a 96% "Certified Fresh" approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 119 reviews; the film review aggregate site described the critical consensus that the film "is a heart-wrenching, thematically and spiritually rich drama."[15] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 87, based on 33 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[16]

Jonathan Romney wrote in Screen Daily: "After the slightly sub-par Lorna's Silence (2008), the brothers are back on peerless form with this story of innocence betrayed and befriended, which must count as one of the best films about childhood since Kes – or for that matter Bicycle Thieves, to which it surely nods." Romney further commented: "Shooting as usual with cinematographer Alain Marcoen, and in their familiar stamping ground of Seraing, the brothers this time bring a somewhat different, airier look to their locations, more suburban than in the past. Marcoen's camerawork, also, is rather more free-wheeling than the tightly constrained (and often imitated) tightness of The Son."[17] At the 2011 London Film Festival it was among Sight & Sound's 30 recommendations; according to them, "The Dardenne brothers may be the most consistently high-achieving filmmakers of our time – the kings, if you like, of poetic neorealism. Like all their films, Le Gamin au vélo (The Kid with a Bike) is near perfect."[18] Upon its March 2012 UK release, Peter Bradshaw gave it (four stars out of 5) and said it "revive[s] the memory of De Sica's 1948 classic Bicycle Thieves"; it is a "heartfelt, boldly direct film composed in the social-realist key signature of C major, revisiting the film-makers' classic themes of parenthood, trust and love."[19] Conversely, one critic called the film "trite" and its thinking "lazy",[20] while another reviewer called it "formulaic" and "superficial".[21]

Box office

The Kid with a Bike grossed $1,389,524 in North America, along with $3,786,899 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $5,176,423.[2]

Accolades

The film received the Grand Prix at the Cannes film Festival, which is the festival's second most prestigious award. The win was shared with the Turkish film Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.[22] The film received a nomination at the 69th Golden Globe Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and at the Satellite Awards 2011 in the same category.[23] It was also nominated at the Independent Spirit Awards for Best International Film.[24] The St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association nominated the film for Best Foreign-Language Film, but it lost to The Intouchables.[25][26]

It received eight nominations at the 2nd Magritte Awards, including Best Film and Best Director for Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. It went on to win Most Promising Actor for Thomas Doret.[27] The film was named among the National Board of Review's Top 5 Foreign Language Films of 2012.[28] It won the Best Foreign Language Film at the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards 2012.[29]

References

  1. ↑ "Le Gamin au vélo". JP's Box-Office.
  2. 1 2 "Le gamin au vélo (2011)". The Numbers. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
  3. ↑ Lemercier, Fabien (6 May 2010). "Dardenne brothers and Kusturica in Wild Bunch line-up". Cineuropa. Retrieved 2011-01-14.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "An interview with Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne" (PDF). The Kid with a Bike press kit. Wild Bunch. Retrieved 2011-05-07.
  5. ↑ La Porta, Domenico (28 April 2011). "Interview with Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne". Cineuropa. Retrieved 2011-05-16.
  6. ↑ Lemercier, Fabien (12 July 2010). "Resnais prepares Vous N'avez Encore Rien Vu". Cineuropa. Retrieved 2011-01-14.
  7. 1 2 "The Kid with a Bike (Le Gamin Au Vélo)". Screenbase. Screen International. Retrieved 2011-02-17.
  8. ↑ Lavalle, Eric (4 February 2011). "Dardennes' Cannes Destined Latest Titled 'The Kid With a Bike'". Ioncinema. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  9. ↑ "Horaires 2011" (PDF). festival-cannes.com (in French). Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved 2011-05-07.
  10. 1 2 "Film profile: Le gamin au vélo". Cineuropa. Retrieved 2011-04-17.
  11. ↑ "Belgium Box Office: May 18–22, 2011". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved 2011-06-02.
  12. ↑ "Le Gamin au vélo". JP's Box-Office (in French). Retrieved 2011-06-02.
  13. ↑ Kay, Jeremy (20 May 2011). "Sundance Selects rides with Dardenne brothers and Bonello". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2011-05-30.
  14. ↑ Ludemann, Ralf (2 June 2011). "U.K.'s Artificial Eye Picks Up Cannes Competition Titles". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2011-06-02.
  15. ↑ "The Kid with a Bike (2011)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 19 January 2012.
  16. ↑ "The Kid with a Bike". Metacritic.
  17. ↑ Romney, Jonathan (15 May 2011). "The Kid with a Bike". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2011-05-16.
  18. ↑ "Festival preview – London Film Festival 2011: 30 recommendations". Sight & Sound. 2011. Retrieved 2012-03-24. How to slice a festival as compendious as the LFF, with its 204 features and 110 shorts surveying much of the world’s best new cinema (and restorations) made in the past year? Consider this our first bite of the cherry: 30 fine films we’ve already seen and (mostly) written about in the magazine or on the web....The Dardenne brothers may be the most consistently high-achieving filmmakers of our time – the kings, if you like, of poetic neorealism. Like all their films, Le Gamin au vélo (The Kid with a Bike) is near perfect.
  19. ↑ Bradshaw, Peter (22 March 2012). "The Kid with a Bike – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  20. ↑ ‘Bike’ never comes full-cycle, Kyle Smith, New York Post, 16 March 2012
  21. ↑ Have the Dardennes fallen off their bike?, Tom Slater, Spiked, 29 March 2012
  22. ↑ Chang, Justin (22 May 2011). "'Tree of Life' wins Palme d'Or". Variety. Retrieved 2011-05-22.
  23. ↑ "2011 Winners | International Press Academy". PressAcademy.com. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  24. ↑ DiMeglio, Mary J. (25 February 2012). "Independent Spirit Awards 2012: Winners List". MTV. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  25. ↑ Brackett, Kevin (12 December 2012). "St. Louis Film Critics Awards Nominees For 2012 Announced". Stlfilmcritics.org. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
  26. ↑ "St. Louis Critics Announce 2012 Award Winners". IndieWire. 17 December 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
  27. ↑ Bradfer, Fabienne (February 4, 2012). "Bouli Lanners et " Tête de boeuf ", les Magritte du cinéma belge". Le Soir (in French). Retrieved January 12, 2013.
  28. ↑ Breznican, Anthony (5 December 2012). "National Board of Review highlights 'Compliance' actress Ann Dowd and 'Zero Dark Thirty'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 6 December 2012.
  29. ↑ "San Diego Film Critics Society 2012 Awards". sdfcs.org. 11 December 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2012.

External links

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