Spanish Cinema Day: Muerte de un ciclista (online)

On October 6 we celebrate the second edition of Spanish Cinema Day (Día del Cine Español), an event that we hope to consolidate as part of our annual cultural calendar.

The #DiaDelCineEspañol wants to be a collective way to vindicate the weight and importance of our cinema as a cultural heritage, as a generator of a common identity and imaginary, and for this, during a day activities and actions are organized -both in the Spanish territory and internationally- that make known and celebrate the richness and diversity of our cinematography and vindicate the work of its professionals and its audiences.

As part of this celebration, we present the Spanish-Italian co-production Muerte de un ciclista (Death of a Cyclist), written and directed by Juan Antonio Bardem in 1955. This essential filmmaker for understanding the Spanish 20th century makes in this historical film an interesting chronicle of the Spanish middle class through the portrayal of a pair of lovers who take very different positions in the social climate around them.

Starring two stars recently arrived in Spain in the fifties, the exiled Alberto Closas and the Italian Lucía Bosé, Muerte de un ciclista still keeps intact its critical reading and the solvency of the cinema of an author in a state of grace.

Synopsis: Juan and María José, sweethearts in the past before the Spanish Civil War, meet after a few years of separation -after the war- and resume their love. But now María José is no longer free and their love turns into adultery.

[Taken from the Diccionario del cine iberoamericano (Madrid, SGAE, 2012, p. 1003), by José Enrique Monterde].