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	Cécile de France Thomas Doret
Cinematography	Alain Marcoen
Editing by	Marie-Hélène Dozo
Studio	Archipel 35 Les Films du Fleuve Lucky Red
Distributed by	Cineart (Belgium) Diaphana Films (France)
Release date(s)	15 May 2011 (2011-05-15) (Cannes Film Festival) 18 May 2011 (2011-05-18)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	Belgium France
Language	French

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 Cécile de France and Thomas Doret. Set in Seraing, it tells the story of an 11-year-old boy who turns to a woman after his father has abandoned him. The film was produced through companies in Belgium, France and Italy. While it does not deviate from the naturalistic style of the Dardenne brothers' earlier works, a brighter aesthetic than usual was employed, and the screenplay had a structure inspired by fairytales. Unusually for a film by the directors it also uses music. It premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and won 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. 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.

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 a local gang leader known as "The Dealer." At The Dealer’s prompting, Cyril robs a newsstand owner and his son with a baseball bat. The Dealer, fearing Cyril had been identified, threatens him to keep quiet and forces him to keep the money. Cyril tries giving it to his father only to be chased away. Dejected, Cyril returns to Samantha and finally accepts her care for him. 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 and falls from a tree. While he lies unconscious, the owner and son discuss what lies to tell the police. While they're talking, Cyril comes to and walks away, having apparently decided to move on with his life.

Cast

• Cécile de France as Samantha
• Thomas Doret as Cyril
• Jérémie Renier as Guy Catoul
• Fabrizio Rongione as bookseller
• Egon Di Mateo as Wes
• Olivier Gourmet as café owner

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." 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. Throughout the writing process the brothers strived to maintain a strong clarity in the overall work and 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."

The film was a co-production with 46% investment from the directors' Belgian company Les Films du Fleuve, 44% from the 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.

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." The team rehearsed for a month on the actual sets in full costume.

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

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."

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. Cineart distributed it in Belgium and Diaphana Films in France. The premiere in both countries took place on 18 May. 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. 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. In Italy the film was released on 18 May through Lucky Red. Sundance Selects acquired the distribution rights for the United States. The film will be distributed in the United Kingdom through Artificial Eye.

Reception

The Kid with a Bike received generally positive reviews from film critics. It scored a 94% "Certified Fresh" approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film review aggregate site. 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."

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. The film received a nomination at the 69th Golden Globe Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

The film is nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Foreign Film. and for the Independent Spirit Award for Best International Film.

External links

• Official website (French)
• The Kid with a Bike at the Internet Movie Database
• The Kid with a Bike at AllRovi
• The Kid with a Bike at Rotten Tomatoes