#THE BICYCLE THIEF MOVIE#
The glorious scene to me – in a movie with plenty of beauty – is Antonio and son entering a restaurant to eat.
Eventually they will enter a whorehouse and visit La Santona – a form of an oracle lady who tells Antonio: “Either you find it right away or you’ll never see it again.” They will follow a suspect into a Catholic Church adjacent to the Tiber – and we will witness men getting shaved and getting their hair trimmed as they await a charitable meal – but before anything is distributed, the poor must hear mass. Father and son will take shelter from the rain on a street corner and will have an exchange with a group of German priests. “A man who’s been robbed has a right to look,” Antonio exclaims to somebody who questions his snooping. And so, Antonio and Bruno start looking for it on their own through the Immortal City.Īlong the way they will stop at the Porta Portese market with hundreds of bicycle parts and encounter people peddling their goods. The following day with his young son Bruno in tow, he goes to the police who inform him it will be an exercise in futility to look for the thief. He pursues the assailant in vain, for he’s distracted by accomplices. As he stands on a wall glueing a big poster of Rita Hayworth, his bike is stolen from right under his nose. DeSica poignantly has the camera focus on their sheets being put away in a huge shelving unit with hundreds of other linen bundles.ĭeSica also lingers on other moving details like the wife making egg sandwiches on the first morning of work and Antonio excitedly riding through the streets of Rome with other cyclists early in the morning. His wife Maria strips the bed of their linens and has them hocked so he can get his bike back. “I have one…but not at the moment,” he says. He gets an offer to work putting up movie posters, but it requires a bicycle. There’s almost a parable quality to “Bicycle Thieves.” It takes place in Rome, and it follows Antonio who desperately needs a job to bring food to his wife, his son Bruno and baby. It ultimately helped shape the French New Wave – and its impact continues to be felt in today’s movies – think of Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” and more recently “Never, Rarely Sometimes Always” and “Nomadland.” This movement was very influential and filmmakers like Roberto Rossellini and Luchino Visconti among others created exemplary works in it. The shooting in the streets became integral to the style of the films but it was born out of necessity since the Cinecitta studios were destroyed during the War. Neorealism was a manifestation of change and a need for social progress in Italy. They often included children as part of the story – although usually in the role of the observer. It highlighted the poetry in the mundane and in the fragility of the human condition. It emphasized the need for survival in the poor and lower working class. The story lines were simple and found drama in humdrum happenings. The films illustrated the common individual’s struggles with poverty, oppression and injustices which were causing a sense of desperation in the country. The subject matter focused on the everyday person facing the economic and social conditions of Italy after World War II. It emphasized a documentary technique, the use of nonprofessional actors, a rejection of Hollywood conventions – shooting in natural locations as opposed to studio sets and de-emphasizing editing. It is a story that could take place right now in any city in the United States.ĭeSica collaborated with writer Cesare Zavattini, working in a distinctive style known as Italian Neorealism which flourished between 19 in literature as well as cinema. Given the heightened poverty in our country exacerbated by COVID creating so much havoc on everybody’s livelihoods, this movie’s power and vitality seem stronger. Vittorio DeSica’s “Bicycle Thieves” (1948) is another film that every serious cinephile needs to have checked out at least once. “There’s a cure for everything – except death.”
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