Bicycle Thieves (1948)

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Genre: Drama

Director: Vittorio De Sica

Writer: Cesare Zavattini (story), Luigi Bartolini (novel), Oreste Biancoli (screenplay).

Cinematographer: Carlo Montuori

Cast: Lamberto Maggiorani (Antonio), Enzo Staiola (Bruno), Lianella Carella (Maria).

IMDB Rating: 8.3/10

Duration: 1hr 29 mins

The drama film Bicycle Thieves is set in Italy. It depicts the culture of the lower working class, as well as how poverty devastated Italy just after WWII, and how this impacted a family. The story begins with Lamberto Maggiorani, the main character, looking for work. The company agrees to hire him, but only if he owns a bicycle. Lianella Carell, strips off her bedsheets from the bed and sells them in exchange for a bicycle to save her husband’s job.

His bicycle is stolen just a few days into his job. He sets out on a search in the rough city of Rome, worried and distressed. He enlists the help of his son in his search for the misplaced bicycle. He even visited a fortune teller to see if he could reclaim his bicycle. Hours later, he treats Bruno and himself to pizza and wine at an upscale restaurant. And there they see a wealthy family eating whatever they want and they realize how poor their own family is daily.

On his way back home, he spots a bicycle thief, whose chase leads him to prostitution house. The gathered cops are of no help to him as he realizes that there is no evidence to support his claim and moves away disappointed. The movie ends with a scene where he finds a bicycle lying lonely in the streets and tries to steal it, but finally gets caught and beaten by the surrounding people.

The film's cinematography is mostly simple shots with no exaggeration. The film leans more toward realism, with most shots taken at eye level. They composited the shots using the rule of thirds and focused more on spacing, which greatly improved the viewers ability to understand, relate and follow the story.

It began with an establishing shot and, in most of the shots, the camera is placed in front of or behind the action. There were also a lot of tracking shots, follow-up shots, over-the-shoulder shots, close-up-shots, and full shots. Two shots were also used during the fight scenes. They also made use of simple transitions.

According to me, this is a simple, but very powerful film and I found the relationship between Bruno and his father eternally touching. The final scene is a truly captivating moment as Bruno withnesses the true nature of man and the world we have created for ourselves. This story is so direct it plays more like a parable than a drama.