Boy and Bicycle (1965)

16mm, black and white, 25 mins

Director Ridley Scott
Production Company
BFI Experimental Film Fund
Producer
Ridley Scott
Written by
Ridley Scott
Theme Music
John Barry

The film 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 (director) 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).

http://media.creative.bfi.org.uk/files/boyandbicycle1965-154241-cabfi0.mov
The above link shows a clip of the film.

Elements in this film that I particularly liked, and think that I could potentially use in my own film is the simplicity of the shots in the construction of narrative. I like the voice over, however I would not include through the majority of the film, I would perhaps have a narrator introduce the film like 'Mean Girls' for instance where Cady talks about her past and what has brought her over to this new school.