At The Cinema at Gloucester Guildhall This Week: Growing up is not a choice in 'The Kid With A Bike'

In keeping with our mission statement of bringing you the best in foreign and independent cinema, The Cinema at Gloucester Guildhall continues its May programme this week, alongside our other release Hunky Dory, with the award-winning Belgian drama, The Kid With A Bike. Produced, written and directed by the critically acclaimed  Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne- better known as the Dardenne Brothers (La Promesse, Le Fils, L’Enfant and The Silence Of Lorna), this marks the Belgian duo’s first film in nearly 4 years....and it goes without saying that it’s an absolutely triumphant return.

Set in the town of Seraing (a familiar stomping ground of the Dardennes), the film delves into the emotional life of troubled 11 year old Cyril (Thomas Doret). When his father (Jérémie Renier-a Dardenne Bros. regular starring in La Promesse and L’Enfant) abandons him, Cyril obsessively searches for his bicycle - placing his last bit of hope in this symbol of their relationship. Almost by accident, he becomes the ward of a kind hairdresser (Cécile de France-Haute Tension, Hereafter), who seems surprised to find herself so determined to help him. With his wild, unpredictable behavior and his disastrous search for father figures, Cyril risks losing her - though she refuses to give up without a fight.

Premiering at last year’s Cannes Film Festival where it took the prestigious Grand Prix, as well as picking up a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, the film features the Dardennes brothers hallmark naturalistic style as demonstrated in their earlier works. It does however, mark their first film to ever feature music- an aspect that they hesiated to use, but later argued would benefit the film’s fairytale-esque 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.” Boasting fantastic performances from the cast, especially from young Thomas Doret, The Kid With A Bike is heart-wrenching, thematically and spiritually rich drama that is quite simply the best film about childhood since Ken Loach’s Kes and can also be equally and favorably compared to the 1948 De Silca classic The Bycicle Thieves.

Don’t miss your chance to see the film critics are calling:

“A wholly gripping, emotionally acute work of humanistic cinema...****”

(The Telegraph)

“****”

(Time Out)

“****”

(The Times)

“Intriguing, exciting, amusing, moving”

(Nick Roddick, Evening Standard)

Check out the trailer (above) as well as an interview with one half of the Dardennne duo, Luc Dardenne, from Cannes 2011 (below):

The Kid With A Bike (12A) runs from Saturday 12th-Thursday 17th on selected dates with Screen Tea peformances on Saturday (10:45am) and Monday (2pm).