Textual Analysis of the Short Film 'The Cyclist'.

2. NARRATIVE
• ‘The Cyclist’ is a short film that is approximately 4 minutes long and tells the story of
a man who wants to change his miserable and monotonous life in some way. The
establishing shot shows the man waking up to his alarm, before turning it off sadly
and getting ready for work. There is a montage of clips that show his daily routine of
waking up, eating breakfast, going out the door, cycling to work - which is what most
of the narrative is centered around - and carrying out boring tasks at work before the
cycle begins again. We see the same clips being repeated again and again, with the
mise-en-scene and framing of the shots all being the same, symbolising how every
day is exactly the same. The only aspect of these clips that changes is the
protagonist becoming increasingly bored and unhappy. Therefore, one day on his
way to work, before he enters the building he decides to cycle past it, which spurs
on a collection of shots of the man leaving his town and escaping from his repetitive
life.
• The man rides into the countryside where he meets various strangers who befriend
him or cheer him on before he ends finally approaches a lake where he finds peace
and tranquility. The man sits down for a while with his bike happy, but he soon has a
flashback of his wife back at home waiting for him. As he realises what he would be
leaving behind if he left, he decides to cycle back home to see his wife.

3. NARRATIVE
• As he embraces and kisses his wife once finally seeing her, the happy atmosphere is
disrupted by a loud crashing sound. The audience is shown a quick reaction shot and
before it is revealed that the bike that he rode everywhere and had his incredible
journey on has been crushed by a car and is completely broken. After a few seconds
of somber silence, the shot of him looking at his bike cuts to a shot of his alarm clock
with the alarm sound going off. This shot is framed the same way and has the same
mise-en-scene as the establishing shot, so it appears as though the cycle has started
over again.
• The protagonist gets up again, has his breakfast, goes to grab his bike before realising
that it isn't there, and then exiting the house. Although it seems like the routine has
started over again, there is a sound of his bicycle bell ringing which is followed by a
shot of his wife with two bicycles - one for him and one for her. She rings her own
bicycle's bell before the two embrace each other. The camera cuts to a mid-shot of the
two riding their bikes one after the other before the credits roll.
• This film documents the last three stages of Todorov's narrative theory, in which there
is a recognition of disruption in the equilibrium, there is an attempt to repair and then
there is a re-instatement of equilibrium.

4. DIEGETIC SOUND
• THE SOUND OF THE ALARM – The sounding off of the protagonist’s alarm clock
signifies the start of a new day at first, however as the narrative carries on the
alarm clock starts to signify the cycle starting over again. As a sound that a lot of
the audience members might dislike, it makes the facial expressions of the
protagonist justifiable.
• THE SOUND OF HIS BICYCLE BELL – As there is no diegetic or non-diegetic
dialogue throughout the entire film, the bicycle bell is the signifier that lets the
audience know that the man is happy or excited, as during this time in his life
riding his bike to work is the only highlight of his day.
• THE SOUND OF HIS BICYCLE BEING CRUSHED – The destruction of the
protagonist’s bicycle, which is something that gave him joy and broke up the
monotonous cycle for once in his life implies that his day of enjoyment was too
good to be true and had to eventually come to an end.
• THE SOUND OF HIS WIFE’S BICYCLE BELL – Despite the loss of the bicycle on
which he travelled on and had the experience on, the sound of the wife’s bicycle
bell (which is higher in pitch than the protagonist’s own) suggests that she will
start to help the protagonist break up the cycle of monotony every once in a while.

5. NON-DIEGETIC SOUND - MUSIC
• Despite there only being one single track that is played in the film, the
range in tempo and the variety of different instruments within the music
track creates different moods in a short amount of time.
• The protagonist’s miserable life at work is emphasised by the use of a
bass that is played at a slow tempo, which combined together creates
quite a sad and depressing mood.
• His excursion into the countryside is presented as happy and exciting as
the tempo of the music is fast and he uses lots of high-pitched wind
instruments that creates an overall happy mood.
• His time sitting by the lake is presented as a very bittersweet moment, and
this is shown through the use of a slow piano track, which has mixed
connotations of happiness and sadness, which creates melancholy mood.