Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette)
Directed by Vittorio De Sica
Written by Cezare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica et al from a novel by Luigi Bartolini
1948/USA
Produzione De Sica
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#212 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Antonio Ricci: You live and you suffer.[/box]

Imagine a place and time when someone’s used sheets were worth enough to redeem a pawned bicycle …

We don’t know exactly how long Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggioriani) has been unemployed but we can be sure it has been a very long time.  He is elated when he is selected from a throng of men for a city job hanging posters.  The only catch is that he must provide his own bicycle.  Antonio has pawned his to help support his wife, young son Bruno (Enzo Staiola), and new baby.  In a fit of inspiration, his wife decides the family can do without her dowry sheets and Antonio gets the bike out of hock with the proceeds.

How proud Antonio feels when he gets his uniform and gleefully figures what his wages will do for the family!  He and Bruno polish the old bike until it shines.  But on one of Antonio’s first assignments the bicycle is snatched.  He spots the thief but is unable to catch him.  If he cannot retrieve the bicycle his job and dreams are over.

So Antonio and Bruno spend the next day searching for the bicycle on the streets of the city.  It is amazing just how many bicycles are around.  They go to an open air market where seemingly thousands of stolen bikes and bike parts are for sale.  Although they have no luck there, other adventures bring them close to the thief himself.

De Sica was the master of the devastating ending and this film represents the peak of his craft. This is another movie that hides a lot of humor amidst the sadness.  The scenes with the old man in the church are classic.  I really admire the way that De Sica can take an intensely poignant story like this one and view it with the detachment that keeps it from descending into melodrama.  His amateur actors could not have been bettered by professionals.  Clearly a movie to be seen before one dies.

Bicycle Thieves was voted by the Academy Board of Governors as the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States in 1949.  Cesare Zavattini also received a nomination for Best Writing, Screenplay.

1972 re-release trailer