Vittorio de Cica's 1948 film 'Bike Thief' is one of my favorite films.
Often considered a masterpiece of Italian neo-realism, the film's true fame lies in its handling of the simple and timeless values of family love and hope.
Of course, there are tons of movies about family love, but the film 'Bike Thief' portrays the subject so honestly that you want to go overboard without exaggerating or wrapping it up.
World War II is not an ordinary job in the grim reality of defeated Italy after the Rich ending (Lamberti Sat needs to worry about the livelihood of the Maggio Rani family) is a pawn is already a bicycle, but needs a bicycle for a more stable one I left it and borrowed money.
So his wife left the blanket that the family had covered at the pawnshop and asked for a job to put up posters of Richie's film on a bicycle.
However, not long after the bicycle is stolen, Richie and his son Bruno (Enzo Steiola) wander the city of Rome looking for the lost bicycle, eventually stealing someone else's bicycle.
The film 'Bike Thief' was described by French film critic Andre Bazin as "the most prominent of the communist films." The post-war communist movement was active in Italy, which is probably a valid evaluation. In addition, Cesare Jabbatini, who wrote the film's script, is a member of the Italian Communist Party.
And in the definition of the term neo-realism is called a "film about working class life" (Roger Ebert, 'The Great Movies'), which contains the tacit message that wealth will be distributed more equitably in a better society. Meaning is entered.
However, leftist Joel Canoff criticized the film as "insufficient criticism of the social crisis," and in the Cold War era, it was voted Best Foreign Language Film at the 1948 Oscars by the American Academy of Film Arts. I don't think there is any need to judge this film.
In fact, as mentioned earlier, the true value of this film lies in the message of hope that cannot be released even in the midst of love and family despair.
And in this film the theme of love and hope is conveyed without any additions or subtractions, and the following cinematic tools are provided.
First of all, the fact that all the actors in this film were ordinary people, not professional actors. Even so, the actors' acting wasn't awkward at all. In particular, Enzo Staiola, who plays his son Bruno, makes us forget for a moment that it is acting in films. Isn't that because the content in the film is not that different from their real life?
In addition, Richie and her son Bruno roam around Rome looking for bicycles, exposing the dark and poor realities of post-war Italy and social problems such as the gap between rich and poor, demonstrating a genuine approach to the film's content.
About this film In 1952, the British film magazine 'Sites and Sounds' was named the biggest film in the history of cinema.
I don't know if the evaluation still holds true, but at least in this film, as film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum puts it, "The most striking depiction of the father-son relationship in film history," the trust and bond between the emotionally rich is depicted.
The film's unforgettable and heartbreaking ending is Richie's unforgettable, heartbreaking film, carrying him by stealing someone else's bike, but holding his son Bruno's hand and staring ahead, holding back tears after being released from punishment for his son's presence. However, in this closing scene, we can ensure the solidarity of the rich even in a dark reality, so that we can be comforted by believing that film is not a space covered by despair but an open space that leads to hope.
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