Bicycle Thieves, directed by Vittorio da Sica
/The 1948 film Bicycle Thieves shows how the objective conditions of life can drive a human being to commit terrible acts.
The main character, Antonio, is excited to finally have a job, “…delivering and putting up movie posters. But he needs a bicycle, and must supply his own, so his wife Maria pawns the family's entire stock of bed linen to redeem the bicycle he had already hocked.” Charles Burnett, The Criterion Collection
Early on in his first day of work his bicycle is stolen. The rest of the day he desperately searches the whole city of Rome for his bicycle. Finally, needing the bicycle to work and needing to work to feed his family he uncharacteristically steals a bicycle.
Da Sica evocatively shows through the form of documentary style, black-and-white photography with full aperture, filming the working-class neighbourhoods of Rome and using non actors, all to give full life to his content that the objective conditions of society often give people no choice and can force honest people to commit theft to survive.
There are two thieves in the film. The first is the man who steals Antonio’s bicycle and the second is Antonio who finally steals. “…Ladri di Biciclette, or Bicycle Thieves - occasionally mistranslated as "The Bicycle Thief", though the plural is surely crucial. It turns out that there are two thieves: one at the movie's beginning, another at its end.” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian“The characters are just ordinary people, and the film gives the impression you are watching life unfold before you…Its goal is to make audiences aware of a particular social condition that needs a political solution. It is clear that it was made as a tool for change.” Charles Burnett, The Criterion Collection
The film received an Academy Award for the best foreign language picture before a regular competitive category existed. As well as receiving an Academy Nomination for Best Writing, Screenplay, to the writer Cesare Zavattini.
“…De Sica has continually mentioned the influence on his work of Charlie Chaplin. The tensive continuity between tragic and comic, the deployment of a detailed yet poetic gestural language, and a humanist philosophy are all elements of De Sica’s work that are paralleled in the silent star’s films." Joel Kanoff, International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers
"…Vittorio De Sica is credited as a progenitor of the neorealist movement that radically reshaped the cinematic landscape in Europe and beyond. De Sica’s early films defined the quintessence of neorealism by transforming their necessarily small budgets into an aesthetic creed, a commitment to working with nonprofessional actors, shooting on location using available lighting, and encouraging intense character exploration and improvisation." Harvard Film Archive
"The neorealist films of Vittorio De Sica changed the face of Italian cinema, and the director claimed that "my films are a word in favour of the poor and unhappy and against the indifference of society towards suffering." Ronald Bergan, Film - Eyewitness Companions.
Article compiled from:
The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw
They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?
The Guardian
The New York Times
Film - Eyewitness Companions, Ronald Bergan
International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Joel Kanoff
The Criterion Collection, Charles Burnett
