#10: The Bicycle Thieves

I first saw "The Bicycle Thieves", years ago in an intro to film class. The copy of the film we saw was entitled "The Bicycle Thief". The original title as it is displayed in the criterion version of the film is indeed the plural title, which makes it more accurate. There are in fact two bicycle thieves in the film, one is caught, and the other one isn't. The film focuses on the impact one of the thieves has on a poor working man living in Italy.

"The Bicycle Thieves" takes place in post war Italy, when the country was reduced to a capitalistic way of life, but which also meant high unemployment. The main protagonist is Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani), a man who at the beginning is given a job for the city hanging up posters. The only thing he needs for the job is a bicycle to move around in. This already proves hard for Antonio since he had to pawn his bike, but his wife Maria (Lianella Carell) makes an ultimate sacrifice and pawns the family bedsheets in order to get the bike back. "We don't need to sleep with sheets" she says.

It becomes apparent that at this point in their lives, the family depends on the bicycle, as Antonio tells his son Bruno (Enzo Staiola) later in the film "without the bicycle we don't eat."

On the very first day Antonio starts his new job, the bike is indeed stolen, the rest of the film deals with the father and son trying to hunt down the man who took it.

When the film was first released, it was a huge critical and commercial success, it won the Academy Award for best foreign film in 1948, and is one of the important films in the era known as Italian neo-realism. These were films made after the war ended and what usually connected them was its stark realism and social commentary. "The Bicycle Thieves" is probably the best known of these films, although there could be an argument for Rossellini's "Rome, Open City" or "Umberto D", which was also made the same director of this film, Vittorio De Sica.

De Sica's style was using real settings for his films and for his cast, he used mostly inexperienced actors. De Sica was more concerned with the faces of his characters rather than their acting style, as a result there is a more natural tone and look than what you would find in a Hollywood film. Famed producer even suggested Cary Grant for the role of Antonio, a decision that would've been a big mistake.

This is one of the films where faces of the actors are an actual part of the aesthetic, when you look into the eyes of Antonio or Maria, you can sense that they are at their wits end, scraping to get by, they don't know what they would do if they can't find the bicycle.

"The Bicycle Thieves" isn't totally full of despair, part of why it is so emotional is how even the slightest bit of humanity can come through even at at a moment of hopelessness. One of the film's best scenes is after Antonio slaps Bruno out of frustration, Bruno walks away hurt and angry, later Antonio hears people shouting of a boy drowning, Antonio thinking it Bruno runs and is relieved to find it was not him. He sees Bruno waiting for him at the steps he told him to wait. Not only is this a social commentary story, but a tender father/son story as well.

I still remember the first time I saw "The Bicycle Thieves" it was one of the first foreign films I ever saw. The first time I was caught up in the suspense of the film, each time Antonio and Bruno are close to finding the bike or the thief, something lets them go. The film is full of ironies of class distinction and social justice, and the it all comes to a boil in the memorable finale.

In the end, we aren't given much closure, Antonio is still in the same situation as he continues searching for his bicycle, it avoids cliche and because of that it remains as powerful today as it was back then.