Bicycle Thieves

"The Bicycle Thief" redirects here. For other uses, see The Bicycle Thief (disambiguation).

Bicycle Thieves
Italian theatrical release poster
Directed by	Vittorio De Sica
Produced by	P.D.S.: Produzioni De Sica (with finance from Ercole Graziadei, Sergio Bernardi, Count Cicogna)
Screenplay by	Vittorio De Sica Cesare Zavattini Suso Cecchi d'Amico Gerardo Guerrieri Oreste Biancoli Adolfo Franci
Story by	Luigi Bartolini
Starring	Lamberto Maggiorani Enzo Staiola Lianella Carell Vittorio Antonucci
Music by	Alessandro Cicognini
Cinematography	Carlo Montuori
Edited by	Eraldo Da Roma
Distributed by	Ente Nazionale Industrie Cinematografiche Umbrella Entertainment Joseph Burstyn & Arthur Mayer (US)
Release dates	24 November 1948 (1948-11-24) (Italy) 12 December 1949 (1949-12-12) (U.S.)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	Italian
Budget	$81,000 or $133,000
Box office	$371,111 (domestic gross)

Bicycle Thieves (Italian: Ladri di biciclettecode: it is deprecated ; originally titled The Bicycle Thief in the United States) is a 1948 film directed by Vittorio De Sica. The film follows the story of a poor father searching post-World War II Rome for his stolen bicycle, without which he will lose the job which was to be the salvation of his young family.

Adapted for the screen by Cesare Zavattini from a novel by Luigi Bartolini, and starring Lamberto Maggiorani as the desperate father and Enzo Staiola as his plucky young son, Bicycle Thieves is widely regarded as a masterpiece of Italian neorealism. It received an Academy Honorary Award in 1950 and, just four years after its release, was deemed the greatest film of all time by Sight & Sound magazine's poll of filmmakers and critics; fifty years later the same poll ranked it sixth among greatest-ever films. It is also one of the top ten among the British Film Institute's list of films you should see by the age of 14.

Plot

In the post-World War II Val Melaina neighbourhood of Rome, Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani) is desperate for work to support his wife Maria (Lianella Carell), his son Bruno (Enzo Staiola), and his small baby. He is offered a position posting advertising bills, but tells Maria that he cannot accept because the job requires a bicycle. Maria resolutely strips the bed of her dowry bedsheets—​prized possessions for a poor family—​and takes them to the pawn shop, where they bring enough to redeem Antonio's pawned Fides brand bicycle. (A memorable shot shows the sheets being added to a mountain of bedding pawned by other families.) They cycle home—​Maria on the crossbar—​rejoicing in their good fortune. Along the way, Maria insists that she has to visit someone. Antonio discovers that it is a seer who had prophesied that Antonio would find work and that Maria owes her money. Antonio is derisive of Maria's faith in the seer, and teases her about spending money on such foolishness.

On his first day of work Antonio is atop a ladder when a young man (Vittorio Antonucci) snatches the bicycle. Antonio chases the thief but is thrown off the trail by his confederates. The police take a report but warn that there is little they can do. Advised that stolen goods often surface at the Piazza Vittorio market, Antonio goes there with several friends and his small son Bruno. They find a bike that might be Antonio's; they summon an officer but the serial numbers do not match.

At the Porta Portese market Antonio and Bruno spot the thief with an old man. They pursue the thief but he eludes them. They then accost the old man demanding disclosure of the thief's identity, but the old man feigns ignorance. They follow him into a church where, after disrupting the service, he slips away from them. Bruno, after this latest defeat, appears dismayed before his father who upon seeing this slaps his son, greatly upsetting the boy. Antonio has Bruno wait by a bridge while Antonio searches for the old man. Suddenly there are cries that a boy is drowning. Rushing toward the commotion Antonio is relieved to see that the drowning boy is not Bruno. Antonio treats Bruno to lunch in a restaurant, where they momentarily forget their troubles, but on seeing a rich family enjoying a fine meal, Antonio is again seized by his calamity and tortures himself by reckoning his lost earnings.

Desperate, Antonio consults the seer, who tells him, "You'll find the bike today, or not at all." Leaving the seer's house they encounter the thief; Antonio pursues him into what turns out to be a brothel, the denizens of which quickly eject them. In the street hostile neighbors gather as Antonio accuses the thief, who conveniently falls into a fit for which the crowd blames Antonio. During this commotion Bruno fetches a policeman, who searches the thief's apartment without result. The policeman tells Antonio the case is weak—​Antonio has no witnesses and the neighbors are certain to provide the thief with an alibi. Antonio and Bruno walk off in despair amid jeers and threats from the crowd.

On their way home, they near Stadio Nazionale PNF football stadium. Inside a game is underway, while outside, rows of parked bicycles await their owners. Antonio sees an unattended bicycle near a doorway. He paces distractedly, then sits with Bruno on the curb, his hat in his hands. He looks up to see a stream of bicycles rush past—​the world seems full of other people's bicycles. He resumes pacing, anguished and agitated, then gives Bruno some money, telling him to take the streetcar and wait at Monte Sacro.

Antonio circles the unattended bicycle, summons his courage, and jumps on it. The hue and cry is instantly raised, and Bruno, who has missed the streetcar, is stunned to see his father surrounded, pulled from the bike, slapped and insulted—​his hat knocked off. As Antonio is being muscled toward the police station, the owner notices Bruno, who is carrying Antonio's hat. In a moment of compassion the owner tells others to release Antonio.

Antonio and Bruno walk off slowly amid a buffeting crowd. Bruno hands his father the hat, crying as Antonio stares dazedly ahead, not reacting even as a truck brushes his shoulder. They look briefly at each other. Antonio fights back tears of shame. Bruno takes his father's hand. The camera watches from behind as they disappear into the crowd.

Cast

Lamberto Maggiorani as Antonio Ricci Enzo Staiola as Bruno Ricci, Antonio's son Lianella Carell as Maria Ricci, Antonio's wife Gino Saltamerenda as Baiocco, Antonio's friend who helps search Vittorio Antonucci as Alfredo Catelli the Bicycle thief Giulio Chiari as a Beggar Elena Altieri as the Charitable Lady Carlo Jachino as a Beggar Michele Sakara as the Secretary of the Charity Organization Emma Druetti Fausto Guerzoni as an Amateur Actor Giulio Battiferri as a Citizen Who Protects the Real Thief (uncredited)

Ida Bracci Dorati as La Santona (uncredited) Nando Bruno (uncredited) Eolo Capritti (uncredited) Memmo Carotenuto (uncredited) Giovanni Corporale (uncredited) Sergio Leone as a Seminary Student (uncredited) Mario Meniconi as Meniconi, the Street Sweeper (uncredited) Massimo Randisi as a Rich Kid in the Restaurant (uncredited) Checco Rissone as a Guard in Piazza Vittorio (uncredited) Peppino Spadaro as a Police Officer (uncredited) Umberto Spadaro (uncredited)

Production

Bicycle Thieves is the best-known work of Italian neorealism, the movement (begun by Roberto Rossellini's 1945 Rome, Open City) which attempted to give cinema a new degree of realism. De Sica had just made the controversial film Shoeshine and was unable to get financial backing from any major studio for the film, so he raised the money himself from friends. Wanting to portray the poverty and unemployment of post-war Italy, he co-wrote a script with Cesare Zavattini and others using only the title and few plot devices of a little-known novel of the time by poet/artist Luigi Bartolini. Following the precepts of neorealism, De Sica shot only on location (that is, no studio sets) and cast only untrained nonactors. (Lamberto Maggiorani, for example, was a factory worker.) That some actors' roles paralleled their lives off screen added realism to the film. De Sica cast Maggiorani when he had brought his young son to an audition for the film. He later cast the 8-year-old Enzo Staiola when he noticed the young boy watching the film's production on a street while helping his father sell flowers. The film's final shot of Antonio and Bruno walking away from the camera into the distance is an homage to many Charlie Chaplin films, who was De Sica's favourite filmmaker.

Uncovering the drama in everyday life, the wonderful in the daily news.

— Vittorio De Sica in Abbiamo domandato a De Sica perché fa un film dal Ladro di biciclette (We asked De Sica why he makes a movie on the Bicycle Thief) – La fiera letteraria, 6/2/48

Translated title

The original Italian title literally translates into English as Bicycle Thieves, biciclette and ladri being plural, but the film has usually been released in the United States as The Bicycle Thief. According to critic Philip French of The Observer (UK), this alternative title is misleading, "because the desperate hero eventually becomes himself a bicycle thief". The film is released in the UK as the more accurate Bicycle Thieves, and the recent Criterion Collection release in North America uses the plural title.

When the film was re-released in the late 1990s Bob Graham, staff film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, was quoted as saying that he preferred the title The Bicycle Thief, stating, "Purists have criticized the English title of the film as a poor translation of the Italian ladri, which is plural. What blindness! The Bicycle Thief is one of those wonderful titles whose power does not sink in until the film is over".

De Sica changed many aspects of Bartolini's novel, but retained the title, which used the plural form and referred, in the book, to a post-war culture of rampant thievery and disrespect for civil order countered only by an inept police force and indifferent allied occupiers.

Critical reception

When Bicycle Thieves was released in Italy, it was viewed with hostility and as portraying Italians in a negative way. Italian critic Guido Aristarco praised it, but also complained that "sentimentality might at times take the place of artistic emotion." Fellow Italian neorealist film director Luchino Visconti criticized the film, saying that it was a mistake to use a professional actor to dub over Lamberto Maggiorani's dialogue. Luigi Bartolini, the author of the novel from which de Sica drew his title, was highly critical of the film, feeling that the spirit of his book had been thoroughly betrayed, since his protagonist was a middle-class intellectual and his theme was the breakdown of civil order in the face of anarchic communism.

Bicycle Thieves has received acclaim from critics ever since its release, with the film-review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reporting 98% positive reviews from 54 reviews, with an average 9.1 out of 10 rating. The picture is also in the Vatican's Best Films List for portraying humanistic values.

Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, lauded the film and its message in his review. He wrote, "Again the Italians have sent us a brilliant and devastating film in Vittorio De Sica's rueful drama of modern city life, The Bicycle Thief. Widely and fervently heralded by those who had seen it abroad (where it already has won several prizes at various film festivals), this heart-tearing picture of frustration, which came to [the World Theater] yesterday, bids fair to fulfill all the forecasts of its absolute triumph over here. For once more the talented De Sica, who gave us the shattering Shoeshine, that desperately tragic demonstration of juvenile corruption in post-war Rome, has laid hold upon and sharply imaged in simple and realistic terms a major—indeed, a fundamental and universal—dramatic theme. It is the isolation and loneliness of the little man in this complex social world that is ironically blessed with institutions to comfort and protect mankind". Pierre Leprohon wrote in Cinéma D'Aujourd that "what must not be ignored on the social level is that the character is shown not at the beginning of a crisis but at its outcome. One need only to look at his face, his uncertain gait, his hesitant or fearful attitudes to understand that Ricci is already a victim, a diminished man who has lost his confidence." Lotte Eisner called it the best Italian film since World War II and Robert Winnington called it "the most successful record of any foreign film in British cinema."

When the film was re-released in the late 1990s Bob Graham, staff film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, gave the drama a positive review: "The roles are played by non-actors, Lamberto Maggiorani as the father and Enzo Staiola as the solemn boy, who sometimes appears to be a miniature man. They bring a grave dignity to De Sica's unblinking view of post-war Italy. The wheel of life turns and grinds people down; the man who was riding high in the morning is brought low by nightfall. It is impossible to imagine this story in any other form than De Sica's. The new black-and-white print has an extraordinary range of grey tones that get darker as life closes in".

Legacy

The film was a major influence on film directors of the Iranian New Wave, such as Jafar Panahi and Dariush Mehrjui. Other directors that called it an influence are Satyajit Ray, Ken Loach, Giorgio Mangiamele, Bimal Roy, Anurag Kashyap, Balu Mahendra, Basu Chatterjee and Isao Takahata.

The film was used as source material for the 1985 cult classic Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.

The film was parodied in the 1989 film The Icicle Thief.

Bicycle Thieves was featured in Robert Altman's 1992 film The Player.

Awards

• Locarno International Film Festival, Switzerland: Special Prize of the Jury, Vittorio De Sica; 1949.
• National Board of Review: NBR Award, Best Director, Vittorio De Sica; Best Film (Any Language), Italy; 1949.
• New York Film Critics Circle Awards: NYFCC Award, Best Foreign Language Film, Italy; 1949.
• Academy Awards: Honorary Award, Italy. Voted by the Academy Board of Governors as the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States during 1949; 1950.
• Academy Awards: Nominated, Oscar, Best Writing, Screenplay, Cesare Zavattini; 1950.
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts: BAFTA Film Award, Best Film from any Source; 1950.
• Bodil Awards, Copenhagen, Denmark: Bodil, Best European Film (Bedste europæiske film), Vittorio De Sica; 1950.
• Golden Globes: Golden Globe, Best Foreign Film, Italy; 1950.
• Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain: CEC Award, Best Foreign Film (Mejor Película Extranjera), Italy; 1951.
• Kinema Junpo Awards, Tokyo, Japan: Kinema Junpo Award, Best Foreign Language Film, Vittorio De Sica; 1951.
• Best Cinematography (Migliore Fotografia), Carlo Montuori.
• Best Director (Migliore Regia), Vittorio De Sica.
• Best Film (Miglior Film a Soggetto).
• Best Score (Miglior Commento Musicale), Alessandro Cicognini.
• Best Screenplay (Migliore Sceneggiatura), Cesare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Oreste Biancoli, Adolfo Franci, and Gerardo Guerrieri.
• Best Story (Miglior Soggetto), Cesare Zavattini.
• Listed as one of TCM's top 15 most influential films list,
• Ranked #4 in Empire magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.

See also

• List of films considered the best

External links

• Bicycle Thieves at IMDb
• Bicycle Thieves is available for free download at the Internet Archive (German dialogue)
• Bicycle Thieves essay at Criterion Collection by Godfrey Cheshire ("Bicycle Thieves: A Passionate Commitment to the Real")
• Bicycle Thieves essay at Criterion Collection by Charles Burnett ("Bicycle Thieves: Ode to the Common Man")
• Bicycle Thieves video film review on YouTube by A. O. Scott (The New York Times) at YouTube
• Bicycle Thieves trailer on YouTube