Barnes & Noble

A classic of postwar Italian neo-realism, Vittorio De Sica's THE BICYCLE THIEF is considered one of the greatest films ever made. The story follows a desperately poor man, Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani), who, after years of crippling unemployment, lands a job pasting posters (advertising a Rita Hayworth movie) around war-ravaged Rome. When the bicycle he needs for the job is stolen, he and his son, Bruno (Enzo Staiola), venture into the rubble-strewn city, confronting chaos, extreme poverty, and moral dilemmas. Through his choice of subject matter, use of actual locations, and casting of nonprofessional actors, De Sica achieved an uncompromising visual authenticity that contrasted sharply both with many Hollywood films of the time and with Italian films made under the fascist regime. In doing so, he tapped into a rich vein of human emotion. A delicately wrought fable with a fine, ironic ending, THE BICYCLE THIEF is a spare, eloquent masterpiece. Monica McIntyre

All Movie Guide

This landmark Italian neorealist drama became one of the best-known and most widely acclaimed European movies, including a special Academy Award as "most outstanding foreign film" seven years before that Oscar category existed. Written primarily by neorealist pioneer Cesare Zavattini and directed by Vittorio DeSica, also one of the movement's main forces, the movie featured all the hallmarks of the neorealist style: a simple story about the lives of ordinary people, outdoor shooting and lighting, non-actors mixed together with actors, and a focus on social problems in the aftermath of World War II. Lamberto Maggiorani plays Antonio, an unemployed man who finds a coveted job that requires a bicycle. When it is stolen on his first day of work, Antonio and his young son Bruno (Enzo Staiola) begin a frantic search, learning valuable lessons along the way. The movie focuses on both the relationship between the father and the son and the larger framework of poverty and unemployment in postwar Italy. As in such other classic films as Shoeshine (1946), Umberto D. (1952), and his late masterpiece The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971), DeSica focuses on the ordinary details of ordinary lives as a way to dramatize wider social issues. As a result, The Bicycle Thief works as a sentimental study of a father and son, a historical document, a social statement, and a record of one of the century's most influential film movements. Leo Charney

Product Details

• UPC: 715515022224
• Source: CRITERION
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: B&W
• Language: Italiano
• Time: 1:29:00
• Sales Rank: 85

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