Actually, I had wanted to show this right after my bike accident, but I was persuaded that it was rather irreverent, even by my standards. However, being that Death of a Cyclist was made in 1955, waiting another year to watch it served only to let this fine, vintage Spanish cinema take on even more flavor.

Not so many people turned up… one of our guests offered the explanation, “They really don’t like the old ones, do they?”, but last season’s huge turnouts for City Lights and Casablanca (to which Death of a Cyclist bore a more than a few resemblances – observe the Peter Lorre looky-likey in this photo) suggests that perhaps “They really don’t like the old, foreign ones that they haven’t heard about, do they?” would be a more accurate analysis. Who knows? Anyway… the bottom line:

Another great movie on our screen.

More about this film on IMDb

Leolo (Maxime Collin) has a very strange family, and, although his mother (Ginette Reno) says he is the strongest of her children, even he is not without some rather extreme peculiarities. To escape the ugliness of his day-to-day existence, Leolo has fashioned a dream world in which he can find temporary refuge. The more he watches life go on around him, the more convinced he becomes that an existence within his family is not worth having. As a result, his reliance on dreams grows from day to day.

Leolo depicts the world through the eyes of a twelve year old boy, so many of the things that adults take for granted look absurd. Of course, the balance of the movie is distorted by the instability of most of the characters. Leolo is surrounded by a group of nuts. His brother, after being beaten up by a bully, goes all out to bulk himself up to gargantuan proportions. However, when the opportunity to avenge himself arrives, he goes through another humiliating defeat, despite his obvious physical advantage. Leolo’s sisters are simply weird. His grandfather, who enjoys having half-naked girls trim his toenails with their teeth, has tried to kill him.

To escape the harsh realities around him, Leolo has invented an elaborate fantasy world. The movie frequently blurs the lines between what’s real and what isn’t, lending much of Leolo a dream-like quality. It’s an interesting, often effective, and occasionally confusing method of telling the story. Leolo is essentially a comedy — albeit of a dark and unusual sort — and the story is filled with offbeat, off-color humor. Those offended by “bathroom jokes” (literally), would do best to stay away from this movie.

The soundtrack for Leolo is effective. An amalgamation of oddball and melodic pieces, it perfectly captures the tone. There’s nothing commonplace about anything that transpires during Leolo, and the choice of music conveys that.

Moments of bleak, and often shocking, reality occasionally intrude on Leolo’s mainly-lighthearted tone. Some of these scenes are disturbing (such as a scene where Leolo’s schoolmates torment a cat) [Sorry about that, cat lovers. Ed]. However, writer/director Jean-Claude Lauzon has managed to expertly weave humor and drama into a cohesive, if often erratic, whole. Frequently, comedies with messages result in an awkward end-product. Lauzon avoids this pitfall, and, despite all the weirdness going on (or perhaps because of it), fashions a strangely-captivating motion picture.

Review by James Berardinelli for Reelviews.net

More about this film on IMDb