Juan Antonio Bardem's scathing portrait of the privileged class heralded the rebirth of the Spanish cinema in the postwar period. The film is a study in collisions-of images, in bold montage; of styles (now Eisensteinean, now neorealist); and of values. Departing by car from an illicit tryst, a university professor and the wife of a wealthy industrialist collide with a bicyclist; afraid that their affair will be discovered, they speed off, leaving the cyclist for dead. The incident leads the professor into a tortured re-examination of his life, while his lover becomes all the more venal in her attempts to protect her status. In the background, political ferment among university students and the level-headed realism of the cyclist's neighbors hold up a mirror to the bourgeoisie-albeit at an oblique angle, in an attempt to circumvent the censor's scissors. (The attempt was almost successful-the film was cut by some four minutes.)