Bicycle Thief

I’m a little biased when it comes to the old classic black and white movies. Irrespective of the poor film print, typical melodramatic acting and not to mention the technological aspects, these oldies have always been my thing. And to top it, there are few ‘true’ classics out there that seem to challenge the passage of time. I recently watched, as a part of my Films Studies class, Vittorio De Sica’s ‘Ladri di Biciclette’, infamously known as ‘The Bicycle Thief.’ 

The point of watching the film was to learn about neo-realism, a style movement which attempted to give a new level of realism to cinema. This meant shoots on location, non-actors in lead roles, and tackling issues of everyday life, such as economic and social difficulties.

The film is set in post Second World War, when huge part of Roman population was steeped in poverty. One of them is Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani), a proud husband and father, whose life takes a turn for the better when he is offered a job pasting film posters on the city's walls. Helped by his wife, who pawns their bed linen, he manages to buy a bicycle. Joy turns to panic when his only means of transport, a bicycle, is stolen. The film, formerly about the search for employment, now becomes a search for the bicycle and the person who stole it.

Bicycle Thief abandons the studio for the dirt and style of the city life.

Antonio is a decent and true man, who wishes only to hold his head up high and to protect the people he loves. He is a working man who has been failed by an economic system that exploited him. He is, in 2008 as much as in 1948, a mirror to many of those people watching him.

The emotional heart of the film is Maggiorani’s relationship with his son, played by Enzo Staiola, a bond that recalls a classic cinematic father-son pairings as Roberto Benigni and Giorgio Cantarini in “Life Is Beautiful.”  There’s something elemental in the sight of a man and his boy walking hand in hand, whether in glory or defeat. This touching relationship between father and son, the father’s increasing desperation and despair, and the son’s gradual loss of innocence, all carry timeless messages. 

This is hardly enough space to do justice to one of the masterpieces of the film industry. Suffice it to say that if you’ve never seen ‘The Bicycle Thief” you’re lacking in your appreciation of what film can do.

In my opinion, The Bicycle Thief is a ‘true classic’ that can still ring with viewers even more than 60 years after it was made.  I couldn’t believe it myself that they were capable of making such technically sound and emotionally power films back in those days, especially in Italy, where they didn’t have anything close to the big budgets of Hollywood.

For a film that premiered more than 60 years ago, ‘The Bicycle Thief’ still feels fresh and vigorous. It's hard to imagine what the history of cinema would look like without Bicycle Thief.