''Bicycle Thieves'' ( it, Ladri di biciclette; sometimes known in the United States as ''The Bicycle Thief'')
is a 1948
Italian neorealist
Italian neorealism ( it, Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They pri ...
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement.
Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: ''Sciuscià'' and ''Bicycle Thieves'' (honorary) ...
.
It follows the story of a poor father searching in post-
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
Rome for his stolen
bicycle
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist.
Bic ...
, without which he will lose the job which was to be the salvation of his young family.
Adapted for the screen by
Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini (20 September 1902 – 13 October 1989) was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema.
Biography
Born in Luzzara near Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, ...
from the 1946 novel by
Luigi Bartolini, and starring
Lamberto Maggiorani as the desperate father and
Enzo Staiola
Enzo Staiola (born 15 November 1939) is an Italian actor best known for playing, at the age of nine, the role of Bruno Ricci in Vittorio De Sica's neorealist 1948 film ''Bicycle Thieves''. He appeared in several other films including, in 1954, ...
as his plucky young son, ''Bicycle Thieves'' received an
Academy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award – instituted in 1950 for the 23rd Academy Awards (previously called the Special Award, which was first presented at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929) – is given annually by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Moti ...
(most outstanding foreign language film) in 1950, and in 1952 was deemed the
greatest film of all time by ''
Sight & Sound
''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'' magazine's poll of filmmakers and critics; fifty years later another poll organized by the same magazine ranked it sixth among the greatest-ever films. In the
2012 version of the list the film ranked 33rd among critics and 10th among directors.
The film was also cited by
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...
as one of the most influential films in cinema history, and it is considered part of the canon of classic cinema. In 1958, the film was voted number 3 on the prestigious
Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo, and number 4 in ''
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010. It was also included on the
Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s ''
100 films to be saved'', a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."
Plot
In the post-World War II
Val Melaina
Val Melaina is the 1st ''zona'' of Rome, identified by the initials Z. I, lying north of the city centre and covering an area of 6.2447 km ².
The classic 1948 film ''Bicycle Thieves'' and Luigi Zampa's '' Il medico della mutua'' (1968) were ...
neighborhood of
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, Antonio Ricci (
Lamberto Maggiorani) is desperate for work to support his wife Maria (
Lianella Carell
Lianella Carell (6 May 1927 – 22 December 2000) was an Italian film actress and screenwriter. She appeared in 18 films between 1948 and 1958. She is perhaps best known for playing Maria Ricci, the wife of the protagonist in the 1948 Vitto ...
), his son Bruno (
Enzo Staiola
Enzo Staiola (born 15 November 1939) is an Italian actor best known for playing, at the age of nine, the role of Bruno Ricci in Vittorio De Sica's neorealist 1948 film ''Bicycle Thieves''. He appeared in several other films including, in 1954, ...
) and his small baby. He is offered a job of pasting advertising bills but tells Maria that he cannot accept because the job requires a bicycle. Maria resolutely strips the bed of her
dowry
A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment b ...
bedsheetsprized possessions for a poor familyand takes them to the
pawn shop
A pawnbroker is an individual or business (pawnshop or pawn shop) that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral. The items having been ''pawned'' to the broker are themselves called ''pledges'' or ...
, where they bring enough to redeem Antonio's pawned bicycle.
On his first day of work, Antonio is atop a ladder when a young man (Vittorio Antonucci) snatches the bicycle. Antonio gives chase but is thrown off the trail by the thief's confederates. The police 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 Bruno. They find a bicycle that might be Antonio's, but the serial numbers do not match.
At the
Porta Portese
Porta Portese is an ancient city gate, located at the end of Via Portuense, where it meets Via Porta Portese, about a block from the banks of the Tiber in the southern edge of the Rione Trastevere of Rome, Italy.
History
The gate was built in ...
market, Antonio and Bruno spot the thief with an old man. The thief eludes them and the old man feigns ignorance. They follow him into a church where he too slips away from them.
In a subsequent encounter with the thief, Antonio pursues him into a brothel, whose denizens 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. Bruno fetches a policeman, who searches the thief's apartment without success. The policeman tells Antonio the case is weakAntonio has no witnesses and the neighbors are certain to provide the thief with an alibi. Antonio and Bruno leave in despair amid jeers and threats from the crowd.
On their way home, they are walking near
Stadio Nazionale PNF
The Stadio Nazionale del PNF (English: National Stadium of the National Fascist Party) was a multi-purpose stadium in Rome, Italy. It hosted three of the 17 matches of the 1934 FIFA World Cup, including the final between hosts Italy and Czechoslov ...
football stadium. Antonio sees an unattended bicycle near a doorway and after much anguished soul-searching, instructs Bruno to take the
tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
to a stop nearby and wait. Antonio circles the unattended bicycle and jumps on it. Instantly the
hue and cry
In common law, a hue and cry is a process by which bystanders are summoned to assist in the apprehension of a criminal who has been witnessed in the act of committing a crime.
History
By the Statute of Winchester of 1285, 13 Edw. I statute 2. c ...
is raised and Brunowho has missed the tramis stunned to see his father pursued, surrounded and pulled from the bicycle. As Antonio is being muscled toward the police station, the bicycle's owner notices Bruno and in a moment of compassion tells the others to release Antonio.
Antonio and Bruno then walk off slowly amid a buffeting crowd. Antonio fights back tears and Bruno takes his hand. The camera watches from behind as they disappear into the crowd.
File:Ladri di biciclette (film).jpg, The bike redeemed from
File:Ladri di biciclette - immagine .jpg, First day
File:Ladri-biciclette-pioggia.jpg, In search of the
File:Ladri-biciclette folla.jpg, The thief's neighbors
File:Ladri-biciclette.jpg, All seems lost
Cast
Production
''Bicycle Thieves'' is the best-known work of
Italian neorealism
Italian neorealism ( it, Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They pri ...
, the movement that formally began with
Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...
's ''
Rome, Open City
''Rome, Open City'' ( it, Roma città aperta, also released as ''Open City'') is a 1945 Italian neorealist war drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini and co-written by Sergio Amidei, Celeste Negarville and Federico Fellini. Set in Rome in ...
'' (1945) and aimed to give cinema a new degree of realism. De Sica had just made ''
Shoeshine'' (1946), but 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
Cesare Zavattini (20 September 1902 – 13 October 1989) was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema.
Biography
Born in Luzzara near Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, ...
and others using only the title and few plot devices of a little-known novel of the time by poet and artist
Luigi Bartolini. Following the precepts of neorealism, De Sica shot only on location (that is, no studio sets) and cast only untrained actors. (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
Enzo Staiola (born 15 November 1939) is an Italian actor best known for playing, at the age of nine, the role of Bruno Ricci in Vittorio De Sica's neorealist 1948 film ''Bicycle Thieves''. He appeared in several other films including, in 1954, ...
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 of the films of
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
, who was De Sica's favourite filmmaker.
[Wakeman. p. 232.]
Translated title
The original Italian title is ''Ladri di biciclette''. It literally translates into English as ''Bicycles Thieves'', as there is no
definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
and both ''ladri'' and ''biciclette'' are plural. The film was released as ''Bicycle Thieves'' in the United States and the United Kingdom. The poster titles were ''The Bicycle Thief'' in the US and ''The Bicycle Thieves'' in the UK.
Bosley Crowther
Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...
used ''The Bicycle Thief'' in his 1949 review in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'',
[ and as a result this came to be the title by which the film was known in the United States, and some people became attached to it. When the film was re-released in the late-1990s, Bob Graham, staff film critic for the '']San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
'', 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".
According to critic Philip French
Philip Neville French Order of the British Empire, OBE (28 August 1933 – 27 October 2015) was an English film critic and radio producer. French began his career in journalism in the late 1950s, before eventually becoming a BBC Radio prod ...
of ''The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'', the alternative title ''The Bicycle Thief'' is misleading, "because the desperate hero eventually becomes himself a bicycle thief". The 2007 Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
release in North America uses the plural title.
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
Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the fat ...
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 because his protagonist was a middle-class intellectual and his theme was the breakdown of civil order.
''Bicycle Thieves'' has continued to gain very high praise from critics, with the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reporting 99% of 67 contemporary reviews as positive, with an average rating of 9.20/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "An Italian neorealism exemplar, ''Bicycle Thieves'' thrives on its non-flashy performances and searing emotion." 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 he World Theateryesterday, 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 majorindeed, a fundamental and universaldramatic 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
Lotte H. Eisner (5 March 1896, Berlin – 25 November 1983, Paris) was a German-French writer, film critic, archivist and curator. Eisner worked initially as a film critic in Berlin, then in Paris where in 1936 she met Henri Langlois with whom she ...
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
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
'', 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".[Graham, Bob](_blank)
''San Francisco Chronicle,'' film review, November 6, 1998. Last accessed: December 30, 2007. In 1999, ''Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' film reviewer Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
wrote that "The Bicycle Thief" is so well-entrenched as an official masterpiece that it is a little startling to visit it again after many years and realize that it is still alive and has strength and freshness. Given an honorary Oscar in 1949, routinely voted one of the greatest films of all time, revered as one of the foundation stones of Italian neorealism, it is a simple, powerful film about a man who needs a job". Ebert added the film to his "Great Movies
''The Great Movies'' is the name of several publications, both online and in print, from the film critic Roger Ebert. The object was, as Ebert put it, to "make a tour of the landmarks of the first century of cinema."
''The Great Movies'' was p ...
" list. In 2020, A. O. Scott praised the film in an essay entitled "Why You Should Still Care About 'Bicycle Thieves'."
''Bicycle Thieves'' is a fixture on the British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
's ''Sight & Sound
''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'' critics' and directors' polls of the greatest films ever made. The film ranked 1st and 7th on critics' poll in 1952 and 1962 respectively. It ranked 11th on the magazine's 1992 Critics' poll, 45th in 2002 ''Critics' Poll'' and 6th on the 2002 ''Directors' Top Ten Poll''. It was slightly lower in the 2012 directors' poll, 10th and 33rd on the 2012 critics' poll. ''The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'' ranked the film at number 37 in its Top 250 "Best Films of the Century" list in 1999, based on a poll of critics. The film was voted at No. 99 on the list of "100 Greatest Films" by the prominent French magazine ''Cahiers du cinéma
''Cahiers du Cinéma'' (, ) is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.Itzkoff, Dave (9 February 2009''Cahiers Du Cinéma Will Continue to Publish''The New York TimesMacnab, Ge ...
'' in 2008.
Legacy
Many directors have cited it as a major influence including Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of fil ...
, Ken Loach
Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (''Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessne ...
, Giorgio Mangiamele
Giorgio Mangiamele (13 August 192613 May 2001) was an Italian/Australian photographer and filmmaker who made a unique contribution to the production of Australian art cinema in the 1950s and 1960s. His films included ''Il Contratto'' (or ''Th ...
, Bimal Roy
Bimal Roy (12 July 1909 – 8 January 1966) was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such as ''Do Bigha Zamin'', ''Parineeta (1953 film), Parineeta'', ''Biraj Bahu'', ''Devdas (1955 film), D ...
, Anurag Kashyap
Anurag Kashyap (born 10 September 1972) is an Indian filmmaker and actor known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is the recipient of several accolades, including four Filmfare Awards. For his contributions to film, the Government of France a ...
, Balu Mahendra
Balanathan Benjamin Mahendran (19 May 1939 13 February 2014), commonly known as Balu Mahendra, was a Sri Lankan-born Indian cinematographer, director, screenwriter and film editor who worked predominantly in Tamil cinema. Widely regarded as ...
, Vetrimaaran
Vetrimaaran is an Indian film director, screenwriter and film producer, who works in the Tamil film industry. As of 2021, he has won five National Film Awards, eight Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards, two Filmfare South Awards and the Amnesty Inter ...
and Basu Chatterjee
Basu Chatterjee ( bn, বাসু চ্যাটার্জ্জী; 10 January 1927 – 4 June 2020) was an Indian film director and screenwriter.
Through the 1970s and 1980s, Chatterjee became associated with what came to be known as mi ...
.
The film was noteworthy for film directors of the Iranian New Wave
Iranian New Wave refers to a movement in Iranian cinema. It started in 1964 with Hajir Darioush's second film ''Serpent's Skin'', which was based on D.H. Lawrence's ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' featuring Fakhri Khorvash and Jamshid Mashayekhi. Dar ...
, such as Jafar Panahi
Jafar Panâhi ( fa, جعفر پناهی, ; born 11 July 1960) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor, commonly associated with the Iranian New Wave film movement. After several years of making short films and working as an ass ...
and Dariush Mehrjui
Dariush Mehrju'i ( fa, داریوش مهرجویی , born 8 December 1939, also spelled as ''Mehrjui'', ''Mehrjoui'', Mehrjooi, and ''Mehrjuyi'') is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, producer, editor and a member of the Iranian Academy of ...
.
The film was one of 39 foreign films recommended by Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...
.
Filipino action star Nelson Anderson said it was the favorite Italian neorealist film of his contemporary Weng Weng Weng may refer to:
* Weng (surname), a Chinese surname
* Weng, Germany, a town in the district of Landshut, Bavaria, Germany
* Weng im Innkreis, a town in the district of Braunau am Inn, Upper Austria, Austria
* Weng im Gesäuse, a town in the distr ...
, who cried upon his first viewing in the early 1980s. In a project that never materialized, they intended to depart from their usual fare by remaking it as an action-comedy with a human touch.
It was parodied in the film ''The Icicle Thief
''The Icicle Thief'' ( it, Ladri di saponette) is a 1989 Italian comedy film directed by Maurizio Nichetti, titled in imitation of Vittorio De Sica's 1948 classic Italian neorealist film '' The Bicycle Thief'' (Italian: ''Ladri di biciclette''). S ...
'' (1989).
The film features in the 1992 Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New H ...
film ''The Player''. In this film Griffin Mill (played by Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis Robbins (born October 16, 1958) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for portraying Andy Dufresne in the film ''The Shawshank Redemption ''(1994), and has won an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards for his role ...
), a Hollywood studio executive, tracks screenwriter David Kahane (played by Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent Philip D'Onofrio (; born June 30, 1959) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his supporting and leading roles in both film and television. He has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.
His roles include Private Leonar ...
) to a screening of ''Bicycle Thieves'', and stages what he represents as a chance meeting with Kahane. Kahane's suspicion is roused by the fact that Mill entered the screening only in the last few minutes of the film, and the two have an argument afterwards, resulting in Kahane's death. Anyone otherwise unaware viewing the last few minutes of ''Bicycle Thieves'' - comprising Antonio's attempted theft - would gain a distorted perspective on Antonio's motives, just as Mill misjudges Kahane, whom he wrongly thinks has been sending him hate mail
Hate mail (as electronic, posted, or otherwise) is a form of harassment, usually consisting of invective and potentially intimidating or threatening comments towards the recipient. Hate mail often contains exceptionally abusive, foul or otherwise ...
.
Norman Loftis's film ''Messenger'' (1994) is considered to be a remake
A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same ...
of ''Bicycle Thieves''.
Stage adaptation
A theatrical adaptation of the film was created by Littlebrain Theatre, in a devised adaptation with a cast of nine. The production premiered as part of the Rhinoceros Theatre Festival in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, from January 18 to February 22, 2019.
Awards
* Locarno International Film Festival
The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...
, Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
: Special Prize of the Jury, Vittorio De Sica; 1949.
* National Board of Review
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...
: NBR Award, Best Director, Vittorio De Sica; Best Film (Any Language), Italy; 1949.
* New York Film Critics Circle Awards
The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) is an American film critic organization founded in 1935 by Wanda Hale from the New York ''Daily News''. Its membership includes over 30 film critics from New York-based daily and weekly newspapers, magazi ...
: NYFCC Award, Best Foreign Language Film, Italy; 1949.
* Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
: Honorary Award, as ''The Bicycle Thief'' (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
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
: Nominated, Oscar, Best Writing, Screenplay; as ''The Bicycle Thief'', Cesare Zavattini; 1950.
* British Academy of Film and Television Arts
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
: BAFTA Film Award, Best Film from any Source; 1950.
* Bodil Awards
The Bodil Awards are the major Danish film awards given by the Danish Film Critics Association. The awards are presented annually at a ceremony in Copenhagen. Established in 1948, it is one of the oldest film awards in Europe. The awards are given ...
, Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
: Bodil, Best European Film (Bedste europæiske film), Vittorio De Sica; 1950.
* Golden Globes
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
: Golden Globe, Best Foreign Film, Italy; 1950.
* Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
: CEC Award, Best Foreign Film (Mejor Película Extranjera), Italy; 1951.
* Kinema Junpo Awards, Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
, Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
: 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
Gerardo Guerrieri (4 February 1920 in Matera – 24 April 1986 in Rome) was an Italian film director, playwright, screenwriter, translator, theater critic, and essayist. He is particularly remembered for translating numerous plays into the Italian ...
.
* Best Story (Miglior Soggetto), Cesare Zavattini.
* Listed as one of TCM's top 15 most influential films list, as ''The Bicycle Thief'' (1947),
* Ranked #4 in ''Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.
*Voted #2 in BBC Culture's poll of 209 critics in 43 countries for the greatest foreign-language film of all time.
See also
* List of films considered the best
This is a list of films considered the best in national and international surveys of critics and the public.
Some surveys focus on all films, while others focus on a particular genre or country. Voting systems differ, and some surveys suffer ...
References
External links
*
* (German dialogue)
''Bicycle Thieves: A Passionate Commitment to the Real''
an essay by Godfrey Cheshire at the Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
''Bicycle Thieves: Ode to the Common Man''
an essay by Charles Burnett at the Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
* by A. O. Scott (''The New York Times'') at YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
*
{{Authority control
1948 films
1948 drama films
Italian drama films
Italian neorealist films
1940s Italian-language films
Italian black-and-white films
Films based on Italian novels
Films about Catholicism
Films set in Rome
Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners
Films awarded an Academy Honorary Award
Best Film BAFTA Award winners
Films about poverty
Films directed by Vittorio De Sica
Films with screenplays by Cesare Zavattini
Films with screenplays by Suso Cecchi d'Amico
Films scored by Alessandro Cicognini
Films about father–son relationships
1940s Italian films