Bicycle Thieves (1948) - Original Title: Ladri di biciclette - By Vittorio De Sica

Our Rating: 10.0 IMDb Ratings: 8.4 Genre: Crime | Drama Cast: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell Country: Italy Language: Italian Runtime: 93 min Color: Black and White



Summary: A man and his son search for a stolen bicycle vital for his job.

B icycle Thieves is a 1948 ubiquitously acclaimed Neo-realistic film directed by Italian master movie-maker Vittorio De Sica. Semantically speaking, self-realization is a probable prelude to catharsis, but at a much higher echelon of cognition the two become virtually inseparable as attaining the former would automatically yield the latter. At this threshold of enlightenment, human spirit attains a sense of ephemeral divinity that would either drive the human crazy or would lead him to salvation. This enlightenment can seldom be attained through vicarious means. Even cinema, with its unparalleled potential to stimulate and satiate, mostly falls short of being cathartic, and only in the rarest of the rare cases does it manage to accomplish the incredible and the extraordinary. Undoubtedly, Bicycle Thieves is one such rare moment of triumph wherein cinema becomes not only the tool but also the medium for the viewer to attain eternal salvation.





Bicycle Thieves is an Italian neo-realist film by Vittorio De Sica Italian neo-realism , a naturalistic movement in Italian cinema of the 1940s that aimed at giving cinema a new degree of realism, promoted the use of an amateur cast vis-à-vis a professionally trained one and advocated shooting at real locations instead of the custom-built sets & studios. Keeping up with the spirit of the movement, Vittorio De Sica chose a factory fitter who had brought his son along for an audition as his male lead. His lead actress was a journalist who had approached him for an interview, while the young boy was filled by a child spotted in the crowd watching the filming.





Bicycle Thieves tells the story of a poor worker searching the streets of Rome for his stolen bicycle, which he needs to keep his job. Bicycle Thieves is an amalgam of contrasting human feelings of hope & despair, sacrifice & gratification, euphoria & melancholy, love & detestation, and malice & benevolence. Bicycle Thieves fulfills the true purpose of art, which is to discover the meaning of life. Bicycle Thieves brilliantly handles with utmost care and precision the tender and often painful relationship that universally exists between a father and a son. The later half of the movie presents cinema at its most vivid, vituperative and volatile culminating in one of the most impactful, melancholic and brutally humanistic finales ever filmed in cinematic history, the agony of which would keep the viewer contemplating for weeks, months, or even years.