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Review

The Bicycle Thief

Director

Vittorio De Sica

Year

1948

Rating

Reviewed by

Gon C Curiel a.k.a. Groucho

Review date

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Ladri di Biciclette is one of those lucky films that have been regarded as masterpieces since their initial release and have not only remained as such but have even grown in their status of classic films. It’s really a marvel but it’s not hard to see why: its beauty is so simple and obvious, and its theme so universal, that it’s hard not to appreciate it completely and love it forever. I remember seeing it as a kid and when I saw it years later I was impressed by how many images still were in my mind so vividly. It’s so powerful and moving yet so completely unpretentious and simplistic, it’s just amazing.

Vittorio De Sica created in Ladri di Biciclette the most memorable exponent of the neo-realist movement that influenced cinema drastically after WWII, focusing on the economic unsettledness in several European countries, particularly Italy.

This film tells the tale of Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani), unemployed for a long while and overjoyed when he finally finds a job plastering posters all over Rome, which requires him to use his bicycle. The catch: he pawned his bicycle and has no money to get it back. His loving and supportive wife Maria (Lianella Carell) decides to pawn their linen to get the bike back, and off goes Antonio to his first day of work, happy and hopeful.

Then, on that very day, his bicycle is stolen.

Unable to get any other bicycle, Antonio looks for the stolen one along with his son Bruno (Enzo Staiola). The film depicts the shattering adventure Antonio and Bruno live together, desperately trying to find the bicycle before the next day of work. Throughout this heartbreaking road, De Sica presents all sorts of vignettes that depict society as harsh as it was back then and still remains in so many places around the world: people are desperate for work, there’s very little of it, the contrast between rich and poor is abysmal, and an essentially honest man can be reduced to delinquency in the wake of complete desperation.

De Sica chose to cast only unprofessional actors and took this task so seriously that, for instance, Maggiorani was in real life a working class man who struggled for survival. This adds to the neo-realism as this amateur not only convinces completely but gives the character an extra touch—he’s real. No professional actor could’ve done it so well (just look at that final scene!). Staiola is also perfection as his son, and the relationship between them is pivotal to the story. The rest of the cast is superb.

Alessandro Cicognini’s score and Carlo Montuori’s cinematography are perfect ingredients for De Sica’s simple film that doesn’t employ fancy camera movements or other such effects, but rather sticks to the simplest techniques and follows the main character with faith and devotion. We’re there to follow this poor man’s adventure while the filmmakers unforgivably transmit the harsh realities of a society where it’s every man for himself against countless enemies who sometimes look as honest as anyone—and probably are, at their core.

This gem is not to be missed.

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Other reviews of The Bicycle Thief (1948): Morris