The Bicycle Thieves 1948

Talk about great movies, and it should lead you to this superb Italian neo realist classic directed by the great Vittorio de Sica in 1948. I haven't seen it in years, and thanks to the Criterion Channel I was able to view it in a really nice transfer the other night. It took the silliness of the Oscars and put them where they belong, I think Sean Penn would agree with me. Set in the post war city of Rome which is also one of the “stars” of the film, the story is simple but the emotions are complex. A struggling father with a little baby and a nine year old boy, is desperate to find a job, but the one he does find posting advertising bills and posters requires a bicycle which is in the pawn shop.

His sad wife literally takes the sheets off their bed and takes them to the pawn shop to hopefully get the money to get his bike out of hock. They do, and if you think things are looking up for this family forget about it. I'm not going to give away much of the plot but there are many scenes of tenderness and sadness especially between the father beautifully played by Lamberto Maggiorani and his young son brilliantly acted by Enzo Staiola. The scene of them eating out in a restaurant maybe for the first time tore me up even though the scene has some obvious touches.

Actually the entire film tore me up, and I'm still looking for the pieces. This is neo realism which means of course that it was filmed in the actual streets of Rome with mainly real people but De Sica uses many actors both professional and untrained in most of the key acting roles. The film won the honorary Oscar in 1949 as the most outstanding foreign language film released in the united states during 1949 and also was nominated for the screenplay Oscar but lost to “A Letter To Three Wives.”. Of course the title gives the plot away but you need to see it to get the raw beauty and yes elegance of this great film and I promise that the ending will reduce you to tears or at least stay with you for a couple of days. One of the ten best films of 1948.