#374: DE SICA, Vittorio: Bicycle Thieves (1948)

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DE SICA, Vittorio (Italy)
Bicycle Thieves [1948]
Spine #374
DVD


Hailed around the world as one of the greatest movies ever made, Vittorio De Sica's Academy Award-winning Bicycle Thieves defined an era in cinema. In postwar, poverty-stricken Rome, a man hoping to support his desperate family with a new job loses his bicycle, his main means of transportation for work. With his wide-eyed young son in tow, he sets off to track down the thief. Simple in construction and dazzlingly rich in human insight, Bicycle Thieves embodied all the greatest strengths of the Italian neorealist movement: emotional clarity, social righteousness, and brutal honesty.

89 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
in Italian
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2007
Director/Writers


Based on a novel by Luigi Bartolini.
De Sica was 47 when he directed Bicycle Thieves.


The Film

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Eighty-page booklet featuring essays by Godfrey Cheshire, Charles Burnett, Zavattini, André Bazin, De Sica, Lianella Carell, Luisa Alessandri, Sergio Leone, Manuel De Sica, and Maria Mercader.

Commentary

None.

Working with De Sica

A collection of interviews with screenwriter d’Amico, actor Staiola, and film scholar Callisto Cosulich.
Life as It is: The Neorealist Movement in Italy

A program on the history of Italian neorealism, featuring scholar Mark Shiel.
Documentary

From 2003 on screenwriter and longtime De Sica collaborator Zavattini, directed by Carlo Lizzani.
Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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