Bicycle Thieves (1949)

It Retains Its Power

"The Bicycle Thief," a dramatic, grainy black and white Italian film released in the United States in 1949, has long been considered one of the greats, for several reasons. The strongest must be that, along with Roberto Rossellini's 1946 "Open City," it gives us an unvarnished look at Rome, shortly after the end of World War II, which the Italians definitively lost. The city is devastated; its people are desperate for jobs, food, and shelter.

The movie was written by Cesare Zavattini, frequent collaborator of its director, Vittorio De Sica, erstwhile matinée idol, who took his camera onto the streets of Rome, used amateur actors, and filmed in natural light. He and Rossellini were therefore described as adherents of the "neorealist" school.

The plot of "The Bicycle Thief," as it was called in America is, of course, well-known. Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani), one of the city's throngs of long-term unemployed, finally gets a job, and a good one with the city: putting up posters. But ownership of a bike is a prerequisite. His wife Maria (Lianella Carell) gets his out of hock by pawning the sheets in her dowry. On Ricci's very first day on the job, while he's hanging a poster of Rita Hayworth in "Gilda," his attention wanders from the bike. And it's gone, stolen just like that. He and his son Bruno (Enzo Staiola) frantically search the city for it. Maggiorani and Staiola, though both amateurs, turn in intense, fully inhabited performances. Staiola's, as the son Bruno, is extraordinarily expressive: his eyes can speak volumes. Many critics will tell you that, stolen bicycle aside; the movie is most moving in its depiction of a strong father/son bond. And many more will point out that the relationship shown here strongly influenced the Oscar-winning World War II Holocaust film, "Life Is Beautiful," by Roberto Benigni.

"Bicycle Thief" is certainly realistic. There's a scene where Bruno is trying to cross a street to join his father; he's brushed back twice by traffic. As De Sica was filming on actual, live location, these two near accidents really happened, and were left in the picture. Furthermore, Maggiorani had been one of the city's unemployed before filming, and he would continue to struggle for work afterwards.

It's said that prospective producer David O. Selznick proposed Cary Grant for the lead, and that De Sica countered by asking for Henry Fonda. "Bicycle Thief" received a Special Oscar before the Best Foreign Film Category was established.

De Sica was born into poverty in a village near Rome, and grew up in always poor southern Naples. His first job was as an office clerk, but he made his screen debut, as an actor, in his teens. He joined a stage company in 1923, and became a theater matinée idol; he would soon become a cinematic matinée idol as well. He was a compulsive gambler, and a communist (there were many of them in Italy after the War), and his politics surely influenced his work. In 1970, shortly before the director's death, he made "Garden of the Finzi-Continis," about Italian Jews leading doomed lives during WWII, and its attendant Holocaust, that won another Oscar. In 1961, he made another WWII picture, "Two Women," based on a novel by Alberto Moravia that won its star, Sophia Loren, a Best Actress Oscar, an extremely rare one, as given for a performance not in English. Throughout his acting career - De Sica continued to act, to pay for his movie making --he was best known for light earthy sex comedies, and played opposite the great female Italian stars of the day, Loren, and Gina Lollobrigida.

This picture was called "The Bicycle Thieves," in the original Italian, as in its English release: De Sica certainly had an eye for irony. His film retains much of its power to the present day, and probably will, into the future. Between them, "The Bicycle Thief" and "Open City" will quite likely last as long as celluloid does, giving us a closely-observed look at a great city, and its people, in defeat.
August 27, 2008

Big fish, little fish, loser fish, thief fish

De Sica's "Bicycle Thieves" (plural, in the Italian) reminds us that hope takes many forms. In the case of Antonio Ricci and his family, hope is a bicycle. Ricci, one of the tens of thousands of unemployed workers in the Italian depression that followed WWII, finally gets a job in Rome as a sign-hanger. But the job requires that he have a bicycle. Ricci's bike is stolen his first day on the job, and he and his son Bruno embark on a fruitless search for it that occupies the bulk of the movie. They come close to it once, but the bike--a symbol of hope--remains elusive. Finally, in desperation, Ricci himself becomes a bicycle thief--but an unsuccessful one. The film ends with a heartbreaking shot of Ricci's face, despairing, humiliated in front of his adoring son, and hopeless because futureless.

Many commentators have focused on what they see as de Sica's moral theme: that poverty and the despair it brings erodes moral fiber. Ricci, the victim of robbery, himself stoops to robbery. But I think this misses the broader point. In a capitalist society, given the intensity of competition, the imperative to climb the social and economic ladder, and the merciless disregard for people who can't "cut it," everyone necessarily becomes a thief (hence the plural "thieves" in the title) just to survive. But only a handful--the movers and shakers, the beautiful people who live in penthouses and are relatively unaffected by the economic crises periodically churned up by the capitalist system--are successful at it. The rest of us are losers. We may succeed every once in awhile, but sooner or later either another loser, or the system itself, will come along and steal our bikes/futures/hopes.

How can hope survive in a predatory society built along these lines, where almost everyone is a loser and even losers are thieves too? This, I believe, is the real tragedy de Sica is exploring in this wonderful and sobering film. In giving us the particular tragedy of the Ricci family, he points to a wider tragedy in which all of us are players.

August 10, 2008

Amazing! A neo-realist masterpiece...

What can I say? I've heard about this film for years, and I finally got to watch it the other day. It was one of the best cinematic experiences that I have ever had!

There isn't much in the way of a plot - a struggling father and husband buys a new bicycle in order to carry out the duties of his new job, the bike is taken away buy a passing thief, and the father and his son go out into the poverty stricken streets of Italy to find it.

However, it is a journey that they will never forget, as they bond with one another, and the father's weaknesses are ultimately exposed out of an act of desperation. It is an ultimately heartbreaking ending that caps off one of the best films that I have ever seen.

You owe it to yourself to see this one. Thank God that the people at Criterion cleaned it up, and gave it the DVD release that it deserves. July 24, 2008

Great Italian Neo-Realism

What an awesome film!!! I have seen this over 10 times and it just keeps getting better, even though I already know what happens. May 19, 2008

The Bicycle Thief

This is a great movie. I have see it many times. The copy is excelent. We watch it in italian with English subtitles. April 22, 2008

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