1948 ‘Ladri di biciclette’ Directed by Vittorio De Sica
Antonio, an unemployed man in the depressed post-WWII economy of Italy, at last finds a good job hanging up posters, the only requirement for which is that he must have his own bicycle. When Antonio’s bicycle is stolen, he and his son are forced to walk the streets of Rome in search of it, or else face ruin.
Lamberto Maggiorani Enzo Staiola Lianella Carell Gino Saltamerenda Vittorio Antonucci Giulio Chiari Elena Altieri Carlo Jachino Michele Sakara Fausto Guerzoni Giulio Battiferri Sergio Leone Mario Meniconi Checco Rissone Peppino Spadaro Nando Bruno Eolo Capritti Memmo Carotenuto Emma Druetti Umberto Spadaro
Cesare Zavattini Oreste Biancoli Suso Cecchi d'Amico Vittorio De Sica Luigi Bartolini Adolfo Franci Gerardo Guerrieri Gherardo Gherardi
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…
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Oh so graceful. Lingering to the touch. A window of endless compassion and perspective. De Sica fluidly portrays individual hardship against the apathetic noise of the collective only to meld its "singular" journey into a systemic reality. Hand and hand, we walk.
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…
Lamberto Maggiorani (who plays the lead role of Antonio) was laid off from his job as a factory worker shortly after the film was complete. The factory required budget cuts and decided to fire Maggiorani because everyone assumed he was a millionaire movie star when he actually made only 600,000 lira (a little over 30,000 US dollars today, counting inflation). He pretty much spent the rest of his life as a bricklayer desperately trying but failing to land more acting gigs; even de Sica wouldn’t rehire him. Eventually, he died poor, having never regained the success of his first role.
And that is more depressing than the entire film.
This was simply incredible. Not a single dull moment in this wildly entertaining ride. The snappy dialogues and the ridiculous situations the central characters find themselves in makes up for a throughly entertaining experience (well, asides the ending which I thought was bleak, but a faultless ending nonetheless). I must say, Enzo Staiola, the boy who plays Bruno, was simply fantastic.
My only gripe with Bicycle Thieves was that it wasn't 2, maybe 3 or 5 hours longer.
İlk taşındığımızda arkadaşım yokken benim de bisikletimi çalmışlardı bi ara çok ağlamıştım :(
Masochistically watched this shortly after my own bike was stolen. The incident in question felt dirty somehow, like a violation, knowing that that proud old mountain bike had passed from a friend to my brother to me, only to probably wind up parted out for meth money. Still, at least my livelihood and that of my family’s didn’t depend on it. And I don’t think it’s (entirely) due to my empathic standing from the get-go that this is almost intolerably miserablist, as De Sica’s cocktail of neorealism and alienating “movie” moments (rich kid in the restaurant, randomly running into the thieves multiple times) makes for a sadistic-feeling experience. Tough to watch does not equal bad though. Sports two really good lead performances, a rare look at impoverished post-war Rome, and of course that famous ending...
Man, this movie is soul-crushing. You just lose faith in people and the system when you see poor Antonio sees his future crumble slowly. It's just so intense and powerful as you watch Antonio slowly break down and get more and more desperate and angry. It's just so painful, you want to hug the poor guy.
I can see why this is regarded as one of the best films ever made. It was an emotional and very simple story, but it didn't really connect with me like I was hoping. I still had fun but hope to enjoy it more the second time around.
Monumento colossale del neorealismo italiano.
Come i piccoli problemi della nostra vita quotidiana possono essere considerati veri e propri drammi se contestualizzati in anni diversi e in situazioni socio-economiche parecchio lontane dal nostro immaginario.
E. Staiola mette in atto un'interpretazione fenomenale, riuscendo a far emozionare spesso senza pronunciare alcuna parola o esclamazione.
Una vicenda socialmente spaventosa di un'epoca che oggi non possiamo far altro che immaginare solamente, tanta la distanza che si è creata nel corso dei decenni.
Il premio Oscar è il riconoscimento minore che potesse ricevere.
As a portrait of society in a certain place and time is a piece of art. As a movie itself, it's very simplistic and also very sad. I don't know what else I can take after watch the film than a "yeah, life can suck". This is one of those films that might linger on my mind for a while until I realize how good it is.
Remarkable film with a very simple plot. Lamberto Maggiorani plays Antonio, a guy who gets a desperately needed job. The catch is that he needs a bicycle to do it. After he gets it out of hock, his initial optimism is dashed when his bicycle is stolen. For the rest of the film, he and his young son, Bruno (Enzo Staiola) attempt to find it.
I had no idea the actors weren't professionals--they're that good.
It's one of those films that I've heard about most of my adult life, but I kept putting off watching. Now I feel like a fool for not seeing it sooner.
Learn from my mistake.
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www.bbc.com/culture/story/20181029-the-100-greatest-foreign-language-films
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