The Kid with a Bike


The Kid with a Bike 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 12-year-old boy who turns to a woman for comfort after his father has abandoned him.
The film was produced through companies in Belgium and France. 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

Cyril, an 12-year-old in a Liege children's home, tries calling call his father, who said he would only be there for a month. The staff tells him his father never answers and to go to play. Cyril refuses and, when the phone is disconnected, bites a carer then attempts unsuccessfully to abscond. Soon after, Cyril absconds successfully looking for his father.
To get into his father's building, he tells the clinic he is injured. He goes to his father's apartment and knocks until a neighbor tells him it is empty. When caretakers find him, Cyril flees to the clinic and grabs a waiting woman. She says she doesn't mind, only don't squeeze so tight. The caretakers take Cyril to the empty apartment, showing his father has abandoned him.
The next morning, the woman from the clinic, Samantha, shows up with his bike. She says she bought it, but Cyril thinks it was stolen from his dad. He likes Samantha, and asks her to take him on weekends. She agrees and Cyril stays at her home and salon. Samantha and partner Gilles provide Cyril with a happy childhood. He enjoys playing with other children, running errands, and cycling. Still, his father's abandonment haunts him, even after discovering his father sold his bike. One night, he goes to Samantha's bedroom, shocked when he sees Samantha and Gilles having sex. Samantha asks what is wrong and he says he wants his father. Without official permission, Samantha tracks him down and drives Cyril to see him.
When Cyril's father does not meet as agreed, they look for him. At his address, they encounter a woman, who directs them to her restaurant. There, he reluctantly invites Cyril inside while Samantha stays outside to give them privacy. Cyril asks why he has to stay at the home but his father gives no indication of wanting him back. After taking his cellphone number, he tells Cyril to leave and let him work. He asks Cyril to wait outside while he tells Samantha he cannot raise Cyril now that his grandmother is dead, has a new life, and says Cyril is her problem. Samantha demands Cyril's father be honest with him and his father says he must stay at the home or with Samantha, because he doesn't care. Cyril has a breakdown and Samantha has to stop and hold him.
Cyril, heartbroken, turns to Samantha for comfort. Nevertheless, he is adopted by Wesker, a gang leader. When Cyril stays out without checking in, Samantha and Gilles look for him and are displeased that he's keeping company with reprobates. Cyril's cheekiness leads to the couple arguing, with Gilles demanding Cyril apologize and telling Samantha to choose between them. Samantha chooses Cyril and Gilles leaves. Samantha, upset, then drives them home. Cyril fails to understand Samantha's feelings and continues running wild.
One night, rather than go out with a friend and his parents, Cyril angrily demands to go out. He doesn't say he's supposed to meet Wesker for crimes, but Samantha suspiciously refuses permission and blocks the doors. In frustration, Cyril screams he does not want to be with her anymore, but she tells him to call the home, but he won't be leaving the house. In anger and to get away, he stabs Samantha's arm with a pair of scissors and bolts. At Wesker's prompting, Cyril beats and robs a newsstand owner and his son. Wesker, fearing discovery, threatens him and forces him to keep the money. Cyril tries giving it to his father but his father does not want involvement. Dejected, Cyril returns to Samantha, apologizing for her injury. The robbery is settled by Cyril apologizing: the owner accepts but his son does not. Later, the son against his father's wishes confronts and chases Cyril who climbs a tree and falls when struck by a thrown rock. While he lies, possibly dying, the owner and son discuss what lies to tell and how to dispose of evidence. While they're talking, Cyril regains consciousness and declines an ambulance. They watch aghast as Cyril pedals away.

Cast

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 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."
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.
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

The film premiered in competition on 15 May at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Cinéart 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 was distributed in the United Kingdom through Artificial Eye.

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." 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".
Jonathan Romney wrote in Screen Daily: "After the slightly sub-par Lorna's Silence, 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 tightness of The Son." At the 2011 London Film Festival it was among Sight & Sounds 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 is near perfect." Upon its March 2012 UK release, Peter Bradshaw gave it and said it "revive 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."
Conversely, one critic called the film "trite" and its thinking "lazy", while another reviewer called it "formulaic" and "superficial".
Keith Uhlich of Time Out New York named The Kid With A Bike the fourth-best film of 2012, calling it "another remarkable, unsentimental stunner ."

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.

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 and at the Satellite Awards 2011 in the same category. It was also nominated at the Independent Spirit Awards for Best International Film. The St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association nominated the film for Best Foreign-Language Film, but it lost to The Intouchables.
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. The film was named among the National Board of Review's Top 5 Foreign Language Films of 2012. It won the Best Foreign Language Film at the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards 2012.