Cycling and Cinema

Cycling and Cinema
Author: Bruce Bennett
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2019-04-30
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1906897999

A unique exploration of the history of the bicycle in cinema, from Hollywood blockbusters and slapstick comedies to documentaries, realist dramas, and experimental films. Cycling and Cinema explores the history of the bicycle in cinema from the late nineteenth century through to the present day. In this new book from Goldsmiths Press, Bruce Bennett examines a wide variety of films from around the world, ranging from Hollywood blockbusters and slapstick comedies to documentaries, realist dramas, and experimental films, to consider the complex, shifting cultural significance of the bicycle. The bicycle is an everyday technology, but in examining the ways in which bicycles are used in films, Bennett reveals the rich social and cultural importance of this apparently unremarkable machine. The cinematic bicycles discussed in this book have various functions. They are the source of absurd comedy in silent films, and the vehicles that allow their owners to work in sports films and social realist cinema. They are a means of independence and escape for children in melodramas and kids' films, and the tools that offer political agency and freedom to women, as depicted in films from around the world. In recounting the cinematic history of the bicycle, Bennett reminds us that this machine is not just a practical means of transport or a child's toy, but the vehicle for a wide range of meanings concerning individual identity, social class, nationhood and belonging, family, gender, and sexuality and pleasure. As this book shows, two hundred years on from its invention, the bicycle is a revolutionary technology that retains the power to transform the world.

Culture on Two Wheels

Culture on Two Wheels
Author: Jeremy Withers
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2016-07-01
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 0803290454

Bicycles have more cultural identities than many realize, functioning not only as literal vehicles in a text but also as “vehicles” for that text’s themes, ideas, and critiques. In the late nineteenth century the bicycle was seen as a way for the wealthy urban elite to reconnect with nature and for women to gain a measure of personal freedom, while during World War II it became a utilitarian tool of the French Resistance and in 1970s China stood for wealth and modernization. Lately it has functioned variously as the favored ideological steed of environmentalists, a means of community bonding and aesthetic self-expression in hip hop, and the ride of choice for bike messenger–idolizing urban hipsters. Culture on Two Wheels analyzes the shifting cultural significance of the bicycle by examining its appearances in literary, musical, and cinematic works spanning three continents and more than 125 years of history. Bringing together essays by a variety of cyclists and scholars with myriad angles of approach, this collection highlights the bicycle’s flexibility as a signifier and analyzes the appearance of bicycles in canonical and well-known texts such as Samuel Beckett’s modernist novel Molloy, the Oscar-winning film Breaking Away, and various Stephen King novels and stories, as well as in lesser-known but equally significant texts, such as the celebrated Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Sacrifice and Elizabeth Robins Pennell’s nineteenth-century travelogue A Canterbury Pilgrimage, the latter of which traces the route of Chaucer’s pilgrims via bicycle. Listen to an interview with the author.

The Yellow Jersey

The Yellow Jersey
Author: Ralph Hurne
Publisher: Breakaway Books
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2016-04-24
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN:

“This is sports fiction at its very best. Mr. Hurne has a cool, downbeat style descended from Lardner and Hemingway, and a fine hand with the hairpin turns of suspense.” —The New York Times Book Review “The greatest cycling novel ever written. . . . An underground classic. . . . A cycling book that follows a different course—one with drama and characters you can relate to, whose actions raise questions about life on and off the bicycle. . . . The heart of The Yellow Jersey is the Tour de France itself, which Hurne views as a metaphor for life. . . . Thoroughly entertaining.” —Bicycling “Full of wit, charm, excitement, and intelligence.” —Publishers Weekly Terry Davenport is nearly washed up. After a career of good but never great bicycle racing in Europe, he is past his prime, and given lately to chasing women rather than leading the pack through the Alps. He contemplates how he might find a comfortable retirement, and is wallowing in an existential crisis. But his final Tour de France—which he rides only as a favor to his young protegé, to pace him through the early stages—develops by a series of accidents into the chance of a lifetime. And though Davenport is old, he is wily and tough and fearless. His arduous, painful, heroic performance in the face of impossible odds is unforgettable. A sports thriller—with stunning descriptions of competitive cycling—and a keen meditation on mortality, The Yellow Jersey is an extraordinary novel.

Art and Electronic Media

Art and Electronic Media
Author: Edward A. Shanken
Publisher: Phaidon
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2009-02-21
Genre: Art
ISBN:

A landmark survey examining the pivotal role of new technologies in recent artistic innovation.

Hero on a Bicycle

Hero on a Bicycle
Author: Shirley Hughes
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2013-04-23
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 076366359X

In her first novel, beloved author Shirley Hughes presents a World War II adventure proving that in extraordinary circumstances, people are capable of extraordinary things. Italy, 1944: Florence is occupied by Nazi forces. The Italian resistance movement has not given up hope, though — and neither have thirteen-year- old Paolo and his sister, Costanza. As their mother is pressured into harboring escaping POWs, Paolo and Costanza each find a part to play in opposing the German forces. Both are desperate to fight the occupation, but what can two siblings — with only a bicycle to help them — do against a whole army? Middle-grade fans of history and adventure will be riveted by the action and the vividly evoked tension of World War II.

Ride

Ride
Author: John Buultjens
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Adoptees
ISBN: 9781785313387

Ride lays bare the harrowing beginnings and the tough life lessons learned by superstar John Buultjens on his rise to BMX glory. Raised by his poor family in Glasgow, he slept rough to escape his father's beatings. Placed in a children's home, he adopted by a bi-racial couple. After conquering his own racism, his life turned around, and the movie E.T. inspired a love of BMX. John's emigration to Australia saw him becoming one of BMX's biggest names. Then came the call from California to lead the most famous BMX brand, Haro. Now their global brand manager, he backs and sponsors riders across the globe. Hollywood has turned his unbelievable journey into a movie. Here, John reveals inner secrets including murders, hatred, sexual abuse--and how his white-knuckle ride has taken him to the top against all the odds.

Routledge Companion to Cycling

Routledge Companion to Cycling
Author: Glen Norcliffe
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 802
Release: 2022-12-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000575403

Routledge Companion to Cycling presents a comprehensive overview of an artefact that throughout the modern era has been a bellwether indicator of the major social, economic and environmental trends that have permeated society The volume synthesizes a rapidly growing body of research on the bicycle, its past and present uses, its technological evolution, its use in diverse geographical settings, its aesthetics and its deployment in art and literature. From its origins in early modern carriage technology in Germany, it has generated what is now a vast, multi-disciplinary literature encompassing a wide range of issues in countries throughout the world.

Road Movies

Road Movies
Author: D. Orgeron
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2007-12-09
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0230610218

Road Movies engages with two foundational twentieth century technologies: cinematic and automotive. It is a book about road movies, a genre burdened by its own seductiveness. It is also, however, a book about images of human mobility more generally and the social function those images have served.

Put Me Back on My Bike

Put Me Back on My Bike
Author: William Fotheringham
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2012-12-31
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1446435873

Discover the story of Britain’s ultimate cyclist and his ill-fated race during the 1967 Tour de France, from the bestselling author of Half Man Half Bike Tom Simpson was an Olympic medallist, world champion and the first Briton to wear the fabled yellow jersey of the Tour de France. He died a tragic early death during the 1967 Tour. A man of contradictions, Simpson was one of the first cyclists to admit to using banned drugs, and was accused of fixing races, yet the dapper 'Major Tom' inspired awe and affection for the obsessive will to win which was ultimately to cost him his life. Put Me Back on My Bike revisits the places and people associated with Simpson to produce the definitive story of Britain's greatest ever cyclist. The fully revised and updated edition of William Fotheringham's classic biography features a new foreword and postscript further exploring the truth behind the legend. ‘The best cycling biography ever written' Velo ‘A beautiful explanation of why Simpson's legend still exerts such a powerful hold’ Sunday Times