In defining the Italian neorealist era, Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves (also known as The Bicycle Thief) is one of the greatest motion pictures ever made. It stands as a work of profound emotion, highlighting human frailty, the importance of objects and the circle of morality by telling a beautifully simple and elegant story set in the bustling streets of Rome.

This movie is truly a work of art, a real and succinct piece of passionate filmmaking by De Sica. In a time where most motion pictures functioned as paths to escapism, especially in Hollywood, De Sica’s realistic look at the Italian streets and at the poor stood in stark contrast to the glitz and glamour produced in major studios. His Bicycle Thieves is a lean film, utilizing the suffocating poverty of Italy in its post-war era as a defining factor.

Lamberto Maggiorani stars as Antonio Ricci, a poor father and husband looking for work. He is given a job, but the conditions require that he has a bicycle. Together with his wife (Lianella Carell), Antonio sells some bedsheets and procures a bicycle to do the job. He is elated, as you might imagine, and becomes overjoyed at the prospects of earning money so as to help lift his family out of abject poverty.

One day, while working at his job of posting Rita Hayworth posters in Rome, Ricci has his bicycle stolen. He becomes frantic in the search, going to the police and using the help of friends to locate the stolen property. With his son, Bruno (Enzo Staiola), he traipses through Rome in all conditions to track and hopefully recover his bicycle.

Watching Maggiorani, who was a factory worker and not a trained actor of any kind, put life into Ricci is an astounding experience. The way he struggles, with himself and with the situation, to come up with a way to understand what has happened to him and to come up with a way to go on with his life is simply amazing. The bicycle is no mere object to Ricci. It represents his livelihood, his pride and his ability to pull his life out of the gutter to provide hope for his family.

With this in mind, watching Ricci’s desperate search through Rome takes on weight and urgency. As he pushes people aside to gather possible clues or to find people who may know where the thief is, we’re with him every hurried step of the way. We’re with him when he considers theft himself, too, and we see the distance growing between Ricci and Bruno as the man becomes more desperate and more upset.

Bicycle Thieves is a wonderful motion picture in that it taps the realism of the streets and of human despair in ways that few other pictures ever have. Placing this film in the context of post-war Italy, a country burning with poverty and anguish, creates a deafening sense of trouble and sorrow for its characters. The raw emotion is inborn for this picture, as though the massive importance of the bicycle and what it means to Ricci simply never needs to be explained.

From the relationship between Ricci and Bruno to the way in which Ricci elects to fatefully solve his problem, Bicycle Thieves is a movie filled with human frailty. It offers us a profound understanding of that frailty, treating it with respect and honour and dignity. The poor are not mere objects to shuffle aside, the thief is not a villain anymore when the story comes full circle and the lengths to which despair can take us are realistically and intensely explored on multiple levels. Indeed, Ricci’s search through Rome mirrors our lives and our searches for individuality, meaning and respect.

10/10

Trailer:

Data
Title: Ladri di biciclette
Year: 1948
Length: 89 minutes
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Writers: Cesare Zavattini, Suso Cecchi d’Amico, Vittorio De Sica, Oreste Biancoli, Adolfo Franci & Gerardo Guerrieri, based on the novel by Luigi Bartolini
Starring: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola
Music: Alessandro Cicognini
Distinctions: honorary Oscar for best foreign language film (1950); currently #106 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: a father can’t support his family without a bicycle
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Concept: Good.
Story: Great.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Indifferent. Although, it’s not really fair of me to judge; the DVD subtitles didn’t translate half the dialog. It is the way of Netflix to only have the cheapest, crappiest DVD available of any title.
Pacing: Terrible.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Great. But not much is called for.
Acting: Great.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent). The kind of film that exists for film students to write essays about it. Thinking about it afterward, it seems like it should be a really great movie. But actually sitting down and watching the thing, I was bored silly.
Objective Rating: 8/10 3/4 (Good).

Perhaps the most notable film of the neo-realist movement, Vittorio De Sica’s The Bicycle Thieves is as emotionally involving as its story is simple. Enormously successful upon its release, being that it achieved huge commercial and critical success outside of its native Italy, the film has remained a perenial favourite of viewers and scholars alike ever since.

The tale of unemployed Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) who receives a job on the proviso that he has a bicycle, the film serves to remind how it is the smallest of factors that can influence a great deal. Having had his bicycle stolen on his first day in the job, we follow Antonio and his son Bruno (Enzo Staiola) as they search for his missing bicycle throughout the underside of Rome.  We follow our protagonists as they encounter various situations that serve to remind them of their situation in life, with some serving as a reminder of the positive aspects of what they have, and others reminding them of the oppresive and negative aspects. 

Due to the nature of the opening section of the film, and the way in which the struggle of the unemployed is laid out, the impact of him losing the bike is made all the more effective and emotional. The sacrifice of the bed sheets (to a man with a staggering amount of linen that will surely never be sold) in order to purchase his pawned bike creates a focus point for the level of desperation the people of post-war Italy are living in. So much so, that when Antonio’s bike is stolen, the bicycle thief hasnt just stolen his bike, he’s stolen his job, he’s stolen his livelihood, his ambition and even his confidence. The bike is effectively a symbol in an alagorical tale.

The hopeless nature of Antonio’s search for his bicycle is outlined from the start, with the protagonists seemingly lost in a sea of bicycles at the local market. Its the perfect opportunity for some outstanding photography, which borders on experimental, such is the juxtoposition of the imagery alongside the sounds of bells ringing and crowds talking. The Bicycle Thieves is an incredibly accessible piece of cinema, and as someone who is largely unfamiliar with Neo-Realism I found it to be a successful experience, especially when compared to the recently viewed Rome, Open City (Here)

Dramatically the film is very much a character piece, and aside from some stunning photography, the film relies on little more than the tale of Antonio and Bruno, and their adventure of sorts. The bond between the two is notable for being one of cinema’s great father and son relationships, with Bruno’s crumbling respect for his father being the emotional backbone for the film. If one were to compare the way that Bruno looks upon his father in his first scene, with that of the last, a great and deeply affecting difference would be noted. The downfall of Antonio is the main focus of the story, but its the involvement and witnessing of the act by Bruno that really hits home. Bruno and Antonio are used as tools for social commentary for much of the running time, with the most noted sequence being the one in the restaurant. Unfamiliar with the concept of an eaterie that isn’t a pizza parlour (the food of the peasant in post-war Italy), Bruno, unable to actually use a knife and fork, resorts to using his hands. The concept of justice is explored deeply too, with the role of an injust situation being the straw that broke the camels back effectively. This theme in particular is especially resonent, with public confidence in justice at a particular low. The Bicycle Thieves is a film about the failure of the judicial system and the impact that bad decisions can have, with Antonio being perhaps the ultimate display of innocence or naivety, in that he simply wants to exist. He isn’t a man of many means, he doesn’t want for much, just the opportunity to raise and support his family.  

The Bicycle Thieves is a very tense piece of cinema, much in the same way that a film like The Wages of Fear is. The sequence involving the inevitable theft of the bicycle is a piece of pacing genius, with the lead up to it being mischievous and self referential. This tense attitude returns several times, with the drowning boy scene being a particular standout, as well as the sequence involving Antonio accuses the thief and the scene in which he himself steals the bicycle. This scene in particular, with its orchestra of crowds cheering, as if to beckon Antonio, is especially strong. The viewer feels for Antonio in the respect that we don’t want him to resort to stealing, yet know it is inevitable. During the build up to Antonio’s act we see him queuing for a bus, the constricting nature of which serves as the perfect anchor point to the freedom offered by the bicycle. 

Tim Burton famously riffed on The Bicycle Thieves in his Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, alas with a more suitable “happy ending”, which is something I desperately wanted from Di Sica’s opus, alas it wasn’t to be; as inevitable a climax as Antonio’s own plight, The Bicycle Thieves is one of cinema’s greats.

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One Film Wonders: Vittorio De Sica’s “The Bicycle Thief” is a film of overwhelmingly powerful emotional potency. Much of the film’s poignancy resonates from the performances of Lamberto Maggiorani as Antonio Ricci and Enzo Staiola as his son, Bruno. They were both non-actors when each was cast in this first film role — Staiola reportedly was chosen for his distinctive walk. In the next 20 years, Maggiorani snagged unassuming parts in 15 films with ungracious character names such as “lonely patient” and “poor man.” Staiola would recede in the subsequent 30 years into anonymous roles as well with monikers like “newspaper seller’s son” and “busboy.” But as this sequence in a restaurant so vividly demonstrates, the novices effortessly express a wealth of emotions as cinema’s most sublime father-son duo.

Minha dica de dvd de hoje é de arrebentar a boca do balão. Se tem um filme que eu posso recomendar sem medo é esse de hoje, excepcional por sua qualidade e também pela emoção que transmite ao expectador.

O filme é “Ladrões de Bicicleta“, de Vittorio De Sica, realizado em 1948, logo após a Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Disponível em poucas locadoras por ser uma raridade e difícil mesmo até de ser encontrado para comprar, esse clássico do cinema mundial é um dos principais representantes do estilo Neo-realista, no qual o cinema italiano se tornou uma referência mundial naquela época.

Vittorio De Sica, para quem não sabe, foi ator, antes de ser diretor. Era uma espécie de galã, atuando em filmes românticos. Quando começou a ficar um pouco conhecido, dirigiu seus primeiros filmes, também ao estilo “comédia-romântica”, de enredos bastante simples.

A partir de 1942, já tendo obtido a confiança dos estúdios e tocado pela situação triste na qual a Itália se encontrava, dedicou-se a fazer filmes que refletissem a realidade nas telas dos cinemas. “Ladrões de Bicicleta”, inserido nesse contexto, chamou a atenção pela qualidade que apresentava, reconhecida pelo Oscar que ganhou.  

A qualidade estava tanto na fotografia e na edição quanto na atuação dos atores. Todos eram amadores e deram ao filme uma intensidade impressionante. Particulamente o ator Enzo Staiola, o menino Bruno, atuou de maneira única, emocionando platéias em todo o mundo. Suas lágrimas eram verdadeiras: o próprio Vittorio chegou a lhe dar tapas no rosto.

A história do filme é ultrajante, mas é a pura realidade. Antônio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani) consegue um emprego depois de muita espera. Sua família passava fome e a alegria que sentiu com a oportunidade de trabalhar acabou quando soube que para ser colador de cartazes na rua precisava obrigatoriamente de uma bicicleta.  

Ele tinha uma bicicleta, mas a havia penhorado. Sua mulher Maria (Lianella Carell) decide vender os lençóis do enxoval para obter dinheiro para resgatar a bike. Assim, ele consegue a bicicleta de volta e obtém o tão sonhado emprego, que lhe daria perspectivas para o futuro.

Bem, pelo nome do filme já se supõe o que acontece depois. Alegria de pobre dura pouco mesmo. E não duvido nada que essa frase, inclusive, tenha tido em suas origens a história construída por De Sica.

O filho do casal Bruno (Enzo Staiola) acompanha o pai em busca da bicicleta, sendo seu companheiro fiel em todas as horas de angústia. O filme me lembrou demais a obra “Os Ratos“, do escritor gaúcho Dyonélio Machado, que gera em que lê também uma sensação terrível.

As duas obras nos fazem concluir, inevitavelmente, que a vida pode ser boa mas, para algumas pessoas, a vida é uma merda sem fim.

O filme dá muita raiva, já adianto a vocês! Mas é a realidade, nua e crua, que vemos nas telas. Por isso, “Ladrões de Bicicleta” jamais envelhece nem perde a emoção que carrega consigo.

Trailer não-oficial do filme, que achei no Youtube: