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View Full Version : The Kid With a Bike (Dardenne bros)



Boner M
02-05-2012, 11:45 AM
IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1827512/)

http://media.ifcfilms.com/images/films/film-media-movie-poster-large/bike-poster_280x415.jpg

dreamdead
02-05-2012, 01:48 PM
This is gonna be in Chicago next month, and since we love the Dardennes', we're thinking we'll drive up for this one...

B-side
02-06-2012, 05:52 AM
I totally killed led and Winton's perfect score. Liked the film, though. :P

TGM
02-08-2012, 07:44 PM
Poll results aren't public. :(

Winston*
02-08-2012, 07:50 PM
Poll results aren't public. :(

You can see scores by individual posters if you click "View All" to the right of Members who have rated this film.

TGM
02-08-2012, 08:00 PM
You can see scores by individual posters if you click "View All" to the right of Members who have rated this film.

Not talking about that, the yay/nay poll isn't public.

dreamdead
03-26-2012, 06:29 AM
This one doesn't have the depth of an allegory like The Son, but few things do. It nonetheless has a sense of humanity, humility, and grace that together resonate, so that the third act reversals, when they transpire, all coalesce to suggest a state of change in Cyril.

There are problems, though. Some of the weakness is that Cyril comes off almost autistic in his devotion to his father. That same devotion explains some of his transgression since he seems smart enough to see through the malignant Dealer, but the film's end suggests more of a sense of transference of devotion from the father to Samantha, and while that's a positive and a breakthrough, it doesn't necessarily have to appear intentional... An adult would verbalize himself more; since that would appear clunky with a child, we take it on faith that Cyril has become a better person, aware of his earlier flaws and now working to prove himself.

And while the Beethoven holds the narrative together, I agree with other critics that it's still almost unnecessary, and would hold greater austerity if it were eliminated.

Despite the more complaints, I still left the film challenged by the Dardennes' humanism and aspiring to believe that I could extend the same grace to others that Cyril extends to the father/son...

Pop Trash
03-28-2012, 03:50 AM
Liked this one, didn't quite love it.

There's a few flaws, like the Beethoven music that dreamdead and other critics have pointed out, that seemed to be one of the few things taking me out of the film. I also felt the dealer teen was a little too on the nose of a cliche antagonist. As soon as he showed up, with his slicked hair and gold chain, it was pretty obvious where their 'relationship' was headed. Luckily, he didn't stay in the picture for too long. I also didn't quite get the ending. I mean, I got it plotwise, but not sure if the intended point (if there was one) resonated with me. I hope it goes beyond simple 'violence breeds violence' triteness.

On a positive note, the Dardennes continue to be excellent at filming bodies in motion, and building a community and space around those bodies in motion. They manage to use the 'it takes a village' notion without ever being didactic or preachy about it.

Quite a bit of this also reminded me of Winter's Bone, which also reminded me to tell the Winter's Bone haterz on here to suck it.

TGM
03-28-2012, 06:43 PM
So who's the 10th poster who voted on the thread but didn't rate it?

dreamdead
03-29-2012, 01:51 PM
I also felt the dealer teen was a little too on the nose of a cliche antagonist. As soon as he showed up, with his slicked hair and gold chain, it was pretty obvious where their 'relationship' was headed. Luckily, he didn't stay in the picture for too long.

I like the way that J. Hoberman reads the dealer:


(Midway through “The Kid with a Bike,” another surrogate parent appears in the form of a youth gang leader — he is clearly the devil, yet even he has an infirm grandmother whom he looks after.)

I think this small bit of compassion extended to the Dealer cancels some of the caricature that we might otherwise impose. Certainly it's not that much, but the grace that he shows Cyril is then shown in three different ways: Cyril to his father, Samantha to Cyril, and the dealer to Cyril. In turn, the Dardenne brothers extend grace in Cyril's single-minded "the debt is paid" mentality by having him get up and continue to his chosen surrogate at the end of the film. He has no interest in continuing either of the other two paths...

baby doll
07-23-2012, 01:26 PM
Maybe the best new movie I've seen this year, but then I still haven't seen The Dark Knight Rises.

Regarding some of the criticisms mentioned above, I don't object to the Beethoven music (unlike dreamdead, I'm not in favor of austerity for the sake of austerity--when did this place turn into the EU?); I'd need to see the film again before I could go into detail about how it functions across the film as a leitmotif, but it seemed that it was tied mainly to the boy's abandonment. Nor did I object to the dealer character having slicked back hair and a chain; I've never been to Belgium, but isn't that how Western European dirtbags dress? And as for the kid's devotion to his father, is he supposed to resign himself to being left in an orphanage?

EyesWideOpen
12-15-2012, 06:38 AM
Really glad I saw this. One of the best of the year.

Melville
12-26-2012, 01:11 PM
Not as great as the Dardennes' first four, but still great. I always love how well they use their very 'external' style of tight observation to capture their characters' 'internal' states, getting deep into those states by unflinchingly following details of behavior and dialogue. And they continue to explore the power of grace and forgiveness like no other current filmmakers:I loved that the kid symbolically rose from the dead after the woman called his mobile. It could have been trite, but in the context of the Dardennes' naturalistic style, it was beautiful.

Agreed with others that the music feels out of place.

elixir
12-26-2012, 01:21 PM
I liked the music.

baby doll
12-26-2012, 01:35 PM
I loved that the kid symbolically rose from the dead after the woman called his mobile. It could have been trite, but in the context of the Dardennes' naturalistic style, it was beautiful.I had the opposite impression. I inferred that he died from internal hemorrhaging shortly after the movie ends.

elixir
12-26-2012, 01:36 PM
Inferred from what? Don't be so miserable, bd! :)

baby doll
12-26-2012, 01:39 PM
Inferred from what? Don't be so miserable, bd! :)It's certainly ambiguous. I mean, that was a pretty serious fall.

Melville
12-26-2012, 01:40 PM
I had the opposite impression. I inferred that he died from internal hemorrhaging shortly after the movie ends.
Could be. But either way, earlier in the movie his ignoring of the call from her had signalled his moral downfall; at the end, he responds to it by awakening, forgiving his attackers, and immediately doing as he'd told the woman he would.

Lucky
01-12-2013, 07:18 PM
It's rare to find myself as a dissenter at Match-Cut, but I didn't see the naturalism in this at all. It played more like an urban fairytale with a supporting cast entirely filled with stock characters: the infallibly devoted--and curiously unexplained--fairy godmother, the deadbeat dad, and the charismatic, tempting fox straight out of Pinocchio. This leaves us with an emotionally lost protagonist on a journey to find himself complete with an obvious, metaphoric wakeup at the end. Having said all of that, I enjoyed the film. I just find its success minor. This has nothing on Bicycle Thieves.

plain
01-12-2013, 07:54 PM
Keith Uhlich spoke kindly of the film and referenced many of the things you just mentioned on Labuza's Cinephiliacs year-end wrap up show, good stuff.

Part 2: http://www.thecinephiliacs.net/2012/12/special-episode-our-favorite-films-of.html?m=1

elixir
01-13-2013, 03:12 PM
It's rare to find myself as a dissenter at Match-Cut, but I didn't see the naturalism in this at all. It played more like an urban fairytale with a supporting cast entirely filled with stock characters: the infallibly devoted--and curiously unexplained--fairy godmother, the deadbeat dad, and the charismatic, tempting fox straight out of Pinocchio. This leaves us with an emotionally lost protagonist on a journey to find himself complete with an obvious, metaphoric wakeup at the end. Having said all of that, I enjoyed the film. I just find its success minor. This has nothing on Bicycle Thieves.
dat's becuz u shuldn't view it as (pure) naturalism, bro!

it is a fairy tale! it's also better than bicycle thieves, easy

Pop Trash
01-13-2013, 04:41 PM
it's also better than bicycle thieves, easy

You're fired.

Watashi
01-13-2013, 04:42 PM
ban elixir now.

Kurosawa Fan
01-15-2013, 09:09 PM
This worked best for me as an examination of gender roles and politics in society, in particular in child rearing. Cyril's desire to find a solitary male figure to latch on to shows in the way he clings to his father, and then moves on to the Dealer, while rejecting Gilles because of his attachment to Samantha. Cyril spurns any notion of nurturing from Samantha or anyone else, lashing out in acts of violence upon himself and others when they attempt it, but gravitates toward the psychological violence of his father and the physical violence of the Dealer and his gang. Perhaps this is because that violence and rejection makes the moments of acceptance that much more satisfying. If you don't have to fight for affection, what is its value? It's a question particularly relevant to a masculine view of society. This even seems present in the shopkeeper and his son, where the shopkeeper seems to be a nurturing and protective father, and in turn, the only moment we experience with the son is one of violence and near-murder. Yet the film also subverts this notion of the feminine as nurture and the male as nature, and nurture being the ideal. It is Samantha who won't lie to Cyril about his father, or soften the blows of his father's intentions. It is Samantha who doesn't hesitate to make Cyril own up to his crime against the shopkeeper and his son. Meanwhile the shopkeeper is prepared to cover up his son's crimes when it appears he has murdered Cyril. This makes Cyril's decision to ride away from the two men such a complex way to end the film. The ambiguity of his rounding that corner, his fate and the fate of the shopkeeper and his son hanging in the balance, provides plenty to think about after the film has finished.

Melville
01-16-2013, 08:18 PM
I agree with elixir. Especially that the movie isn't pure naturalism (all the Dardennes' films are like parables). But especially that it's better than Bicycle Thieves.

Pop Trash
01-16-2013, 08:23 PM
Bicycle Thieves could be read as a parable.

Watashi
01-16-2013, 08:27 PM
Ban Melville now.