Le Gamin au vélo (2011)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Film Review

Having fostered a reputation for gloomy naturalism, the Dardenne brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc, adopt a noticeably gentler, more lyrical tone for their latest film, broadening the appeal of their unique brand of rigorously unsentimental cinema without compromising its hard-edged authenticity.  After the claustrophobic austerity of Le Silence de Lorna (2008), the Dardennes' previous film, Le Gamin au vélo is an altogether sunnier offering (the first film they recorded in the summer), although it still manages to hold on to the social realist context which is so central to the filmmakers' oeuvre.  In what is effectively a modern-day reworking of François Truffaut's Les 400 coups (1959), the Dardennes craft a portrait of early adolescent rebellion that is both harrowingly true-to-life and irresistibly engaging, perhaps the most heartrending screen depiction of broken childhood illusions since Ken Loach's Kes (1969).

Each of the Dardennes' films revolve around a solitary character, a lone survivor, desperately looking for some kind of acceptance in an unsympathetic world.  In Le Gamin au vélo, that character is a troublesome 11-year-old boy named Cyril who stubbornly refuses to accept that his father could abandon him.  Cyril's one wish is to be reunited with his father, and it is this futile quest that drives him on a bizarre odyssey which, predictably enough, ends in disillusionment and a deeper understanding of how the world is.  Apart from an improbable gangland interlude, the plot offers little in the way of surprises (of course, as cynically minded adults, we know how things will pan out), but the film has no difficulty holding our interest and engaging our emotions, through its arresting performances and the Dardennes' remarkable insight into the workings of the human psyche.

Le Gamin au vélo is not just about an adolescent's search for adult acceptance, it is also about the need that grown-ups have to be loved by children, a facet of life that is rarely covered in cinema or literature.  There is an appealing symmetry to this film, in that Cyril's search for his father is mirrored by a similar attachment that develops between him and his guardian angel, Samantha.  There is no apparent rational basis to the latter's desire to adopt Cyril as her own (even rejecting her boyfriend as she does so), whereas Cyril's need to bond with his father is easily understood.  But whereas one of these relationships is bound to fail, and tragically so, the other must endure, inexplicably and wondrously.   Wisely, the Dardennes do not dwell on how it is that one relationship can thrive whilst another (more natural one) withers; instead, they simply make us aware that human relationships are delicate and unpredictable things, and that adults have as much need for love and acceptance as children. 

The Dardenne brothers' films are especially noted for the quality of the lead performances, and Le Gamin au vélo is no exception.  From the moment he first appears on the screen, 11-year-old Thomas Doret grabs our attention and doesn't let go for a second (even when he is sharing the frame with performers of the calibre of Jérémie Renier).  It isn't that Doret is devastatingly cute - Cyril soon shows his less than angelic side and makes it apparent that he would be a handful for any parent.  Rather, it is the inner pain that Doret manages to project, the desperate yearning that a child of his age needs for love and approval as a counter to the horrors of incipient adolescence, which compels us to take an interest in him and stay with him as he embarks on his fraught quest for paternal love. 

Only an actress of exceptional ability could hope to avoid being totally eclipsed by the charismatic Thomas Doret, so this is presumably why the Dardennes cast Cécile De France in the lead female role, the first occasion they chose a big name actor to debut in their films.  In spite of her status as Belgium's best-known actor and the fact that she had only just walked off the set of a Clint Eastwood film - Hereafter (2010) - there is nothing starry about Cécile De France's performance in this film.  Her portrayal of an ordinary hairdresser is as understated and realistic as that of her young co-star, and the close rapport which the two actors developed in the course of making the film is very much in evidence on the screen, to the great benefit of the story - and the delight of the audience.   Le Gamin au vélo is Belgian cinema at its most magical, a life-affirming exploration of the traumas of childhood and precarious nature of adult-child relationships that cannot fail to move and enchant.  You would expect nothing less from the country's two greatest filmmakers.

Film Synopsis

11-year-old Cyril does not understand why his father placed him in a children's home, so to find the answers he returns to his former apartment.  To his surprise, not only is his father no longer living there, but his cherished bike has also vanished.   Whilst he is pondering on these mysteries, Cyril meets a friendly hairdresser named Samantha, who offers to buy back his bike from the person to whom his father sold it.  Cyril takes an instant shine to Samantha and persuades her to let him stay with her during weekends.  Realising that she will get no peace until Cyril is reunited with his father, Samantha decides to join him in his quest, but the outcome is not what either had hoped for...