“The Kid with a Bike”
In-depth analysis of cinema for gender equality by I. Laguri
As always with the Dardenne brothers, it’s a dry film that relies heavily on what the characters say and do. Dialogue is sparse, essential, leaving it to the viewer to fill in the gaps of more complex motivations. In this simplicity, the clear and constant plea for care is that of a child from a foster home who seeks his father and wants to be with him, but the father doesn’t want him. The young hairdresser’s willingness to take the boy in on weekends is simple and resolute.
Their meeting is highly symbolic: the boy, running to escape the caretakers in his search for his father, collides with her. In a moment, the young woman understands the situation and later brings the bike the father had given the boy but then sold to the foster home. Certainly, this film underlines the woman’s capacity for acceptance. At one point, her partner gives her an ultimatum: either the boy or him.
A quick flash on the narcissistic component of male-female relationships. This, on the part of the directors, does not imply an inability for men to break free from this cycle, as demonstrated in two other beautiful films of theirs, “The Son” and “L’Enfant,” where fatherhood is found again at a great cost. Here, the protagonist chooses the boy. The presence of musical notes (V movement of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto), only in a few sequences, is beautiful in this film. They can be read as a call to the importance of feeling, in addition to reflection.
