It’s been years since a film has moved me to tears. But if there’s one film that can melt even the most stone-hearted of viewers, it is Bicycle Thieves. I can’t quite explain what it’s about because I don’t know, really. It follows a man named Antonio, thin as a scarecrow, as he tries to make a living. He needs a bicycle for the job he is lucky enough to get, but his bicycle gets stolen, and he roams the city trying to get it back, his little son dragging along behind him.

But Bicycle Thieves isn’t about that bicycle, really. It’s about fathers and sons, about the way the poor steal from each other because somebody else steals from…

I simply can not believe that these people are non-professional actors. There's the malnourished Ricci played by Lamberto Maggiorani who was just a factory worker at the time. And his son Bruno, played by Enzo Staiola who was merely 9 years old! It's inconceivable! The way they put up such a sublime performance without any training.

I would imagine they were not really acting at all and was just going on with their lives as usual, (and somehow De Sica received permission to film them like how they do reality shows now) but I can not ignore the obvious fact that Lamberto and Enzo are not blood related at all.

Still, their depiction of a father and son relationship on…

Featuring untrained actors in starring roles, shot in real locations with no studio sets & using only natural light to capture its drama, Bicycle Thieves (also known as Ladri di Biciclette) is one of the finest & most influential films to come out from Italian Cinema and is amongst the first films that brought neorealism into the world of motion picture filmmaking.

Set in poverty-stricken Rome in post-World War II Italy, the story of Bicycle Thieves concerns a poor father who's scavenging for any kind of work to support his family. Having secured a job after selling his precious possessions to buy a bicycle which is required to carry out the work, the future looks promising but his whole world is turned…

Filme extremamente sensível. É linda a relação do protagonista Antonio com a sua família, especialmente seu filho Bruno em sua saga para recuperar a sua bicicleta. O filme está inserido em um contexto histórico, mas é atemporal. Um homem trabalhador, desesperado por emprego pra dar uma vida de possibilidades pra sua família perde um bem que pra outros pode ser pequeno, mas pra ele representa uma chance de de continuar, de permanecer, de sobreviver. Mesmo em meio a um cenário de total desesperança o filme trata o tema com leveza e até com um sutil humor em alguns momentos. É impossível não se sensibilizar e criar empatia por esse homem e sua busca, impossível não ser fisgado afim de saber…