The Kid with a Bike

On Sunday afternoon, New People Cinema was full for the showing of The Kid with a Bike, a film by Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Dardenne. The film won a Grand Prize at Cannes & played here in the SF Film Society's French Cinema Now series. The film follows Cyril, a desperate young boy in foster care, usually dressed in red. He has a brush with juvenile delinquency & works out his anger at being abandoned by his father. In almost every scene Cyril runs away with a start or rides off furiously on his bicycle. The film has a dead-pan approach to story-telling. We witness events, but there is no delving into backstory or inner psychology. I felt impatient as episode followed episode without a sense of culmination, but there seems to be a moral tone to the plot. The film also reminds us how children love their parents, whether those parents deserve it or not. Programmer Rachel Rosen introduced the screening & thanked us for coming in on such a sunny day.

§ Le Gamin au Vélo (The Kid with a Bike)
Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Belgium/France/Italy 2011, 87 min.

French Cinema Now
Sunday, October 30, 4:30 pm
SF Film Society | New People Cinema

§ Photo credit: Courtesy of San Francisco Film Society