Yesterday I stumbled on the following short film from Ridley Scott titled “Boy and Bicycle” of which he directed in 1962 while a student at the Royal College of Art in London. Shot over the course of six weeks, for £65 (approx. $108 today) on 16mm and featuring his brother, the late Tony Scott, in the lead role, the short follows a young teen as he skips school. The film was shot in various locations in Hartlepool, North East England.
The short would eventually be finished in 1965 when Scott secured financing from the British Film Institute and would then include theme music by James Bond composer John Barry.
The short immediately caught my eye and after searching the Internet for commentary from others, most of which feel they see imagery they will later recognize in Scott’s Alien, Blade Runner and Black Rain, I think the more obvious discussion points are visual comparisons to Ingmar Bergman‘s The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, not to mention a kinship with Francois Truffaut‘s The 400 Blows.
The short doesn’t have much in the way of a narrative in the traditional sense, but given the voice over’s ability to translate teen angst, wonder and curiosity as a satisfying accompaniment to the imagery it really is a startling piece of work that I’m surprised hasn’t been mentioned more often.
Boy and Bicycle was Ridley Scott’s first foray into filmmaking, made initially on a budget of £65 using a Bolex 16mm cine-camera, borrowed from the Royal College of Art in London, where he was a student. Shot over a period of six weeks in the early 1960s, the film was eventually completed in 1965 when Scott finished the post-production sound with a grant provided by the BFI’s Experimental Film Fund.
Opening in Scott’s own teenage bedroom, Boy and Bicycle begins with the camera representing the point of view of the boy (played by Scott’s younger brother Tony, who would also become a film-maker) as he wakes up and looks around his room, thinking about the day ahead. The film then follows the boy as he decides instead to play truant and visits various locations around the seaside town on his bicycle. All the while we listen to his thoughts in a stream of consciousness voice-over that Scott has said was partly inspired by reading James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922).
The voice-over reveals the frustrations of a growing teenager and mocks the authority figures in his life such as his teachers and parents. Scott storyboarded in detail before shooting, and he includes many visual elements that add texture to the film: a dead dog, the sun darkened by ominous storm clouds, and the eerie barrenness of the beach, which Scott has said was an homage to Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet, Sweden, 1956).
During post-production, Scott was lucky to acquire the services of the composer John Barry. Although Scott could not afford the rights to the recording he wanted, Barry generously agreed to record a new version of the piece, and his music adds a lyrical, life-affirming quality to the film. ~ David Morrison for BFI
