‘Bicycle thieves’ is a 1948 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. The film is
of about 1 hour 30 minutes and is widely regarded as a masterpiece of Italian Neorealism (also known as Golden Age of Italian
Cinema, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the
poor and the working class, filmed on location, using non professional actors.
It focuses on real life economic conditions of Italy post World War II,
representing changes in the Italian Psyche and conditions of everyday life such
as, the poverty, oppression, desperation and injustice.)
The story of this film is easily told through real locations. The
director De Sica has refrain himself to use any studio
locations so as to depict the post WWII view in Italy. The film stars Lamberto Maggiorani as Antonio Ricci, who by the way, was
not a professional actor, a man who joins a hopeless queue every morning
looking for a job. One day, Ricci gets a job of pasting the cinema
advertisements around the city on different walls which needs a bicycle.
The actress playing the role of Ricci’s wife believes in a Wise
Woman, who predicts that her husband would get a job. So, to thank her, Maria,
his wife goes to her place. However, Ricci advised her not to indulge in this
kind of thing.
Now, on the very first day of his work, while pasting posters on
the wall, he loses his bicycle. Noticing, his bicycle being stolen, he runs behind
the thief but couldn’t reach him. The film focuses on the poverty, oppression
and bad economic conditions of the country when having a bicycle for a job was
the necessary vehicle to carry out his work especially for the job he took for
the living. So, the earning of the character depends totally on the bicycle
through which he can feed his family.
The family of Antonio Ricci consists of his wife Maria, his elder
son Bruno, his infant son and the Antonio himself. The character of Bruno has
been depicted like that of an innocent yet slightly clever child who
accompanies his father in search of the bicycle.
One of the scene aforementioned, can be described as a humorous,
when water is pouring everywhere and Ricci and Bruno runs towards a shelter in
order to save themselves from the rain, Bruno however, follows his father and
falls on the ground. Antonio, unknowingly, stands with other people with his
son.
The director of this film was successful in depicting the Italian Neorealism in Bicycle Thieves. In the film,
eventually, Ricci spots the thief and pursues him into a brothel. The cop
reaches the spot, but Ricci couldn’t do anything because of no witness that can
be used to prove that his bicycle being stolen.
At the famous closing sequence of the film, Ricci is tempted to
steal a bicycle himself, continuing the cycle of theft and poverty.
The character of Antonio Ricci is entirely driven by the class and
economic need during the post World War II. Simple in construction and
profoundly rich in human insight, ‘Bicycle Thieves’ embodies the
greatest strengths of the Italian neorealist movement: emotional clarity,
social rectitude, and brutal honesty.
The main characters of this film are showcased with brutal honesty
and the righteousness in their attitude towards the life. However, the
desperation of Ricci owning a bicycle leads to steal a bicycle for which he get
caught up and beaten up by the people.
The director has shown the isolation and
loneliness of the little man in this complex social world that is ironically
blessed with institutions to comfort and protect mankind. Although he has again
set his drama in the streets of Rome and has populated it densely with
significant contemporary types.
Every incident, every detail of the
frantic and futile hunt is a taut and exciting adventure, in which hope is
balanced against despair. Every movement of every person in it, every
expression on every face is a striking illumination of some implicit passion or
mood.
The music has been aptly written and used
to raise the emotional potential—that accompanies the father and son, the music
of rolling bicycles and the "morning music," full of freshness and
bells.
Also, this film had a great impact all
over the world and especially on filmmakers of parallel cinema in India, Satyajit Ray's 'Apu Trilogy' and Bimal
Roy's 'Do Bigha Zamin' was
highly influenced by this film because of its neo-realism concept.
It’s a masterpiece film that every cinema
lover should watch.