Bicycle Thieves movie storyline. The unemployment rate is high in postwar Italy. Antonio Ricci has been workless for two years, when he at last is offered a job as a poster. There is only one condition: he must have a bike of his own. At the moment his bicycle is at the pawn-shop, but Antonio’s wife Maria says they can pawn their six sheets instead.
The first day at work Antonio’s bicycle is stolen. A friend offers to help him search for it the next morning at Piazza Vittorio, where the street vendors sell stolen bikes. The search is unsuccessful, but Antonio and his little son Bruno don’t give up. They continue to the market at Porta Portese, where Antonio happens to see the thief talking to an elderly man.
As he cannot catch the thief, he instead pursues the old man, who goes into a church, where he disappears during the mass. The third time Antonio happens to see the thief, he succeeds to pursue him to his dwelling-place. A local policeman believes Antonio’s story about the theft, but as he cannot find the stolen bike in the apartment, the case is dismissed. Driven into utterly despair Antonio and Bruno walk back home – back to unemployment.
Bicycle Thieves (Italian: Ladri di Biciclette; sometimes known in the United States as The Bicycle Thief) is a 1948 Italian neorealist drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica.[5] It follows the story of a poor father searching post-World War II Rome for his stolen bicycle, without which he will lose the job which was to be the salvation of his young family.
Adapted for the screen by Cesare Zavattini from the 1946 novel by Luigi Bartolini, and starring Lamberto Maggiorani as the desperate father and Enzo Staiola as his plucky young son, Bicycle Thieves received an Academy Honorary Award (most outstanding foreign language film) in 1950 and, in 1952 was deemed the greatest film of all time by Sight & Sound 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. The film was also cited by Turner Classic Movies as one of the most influential films in cinema history, and it is considered part of the canon of classic cinema.
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Directed by: Vittorio De Sica
Starring: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell, Gino Saltamerenda as Baiocco, Vittorio Antonucci, Giulio Chiari, Elena Altieri, Carlo Jachino, Michele Sakara, Emma Druetti
Production Design by: Antonio Traverso
Cinematography by: Carlo Montuori
Film Editing by: Eraldo Da Roma
Music by: Alessandro Cicognini
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Ente Nazionale Industrie, Cinematografiche, Joseph Burstyn & Arthur Mayer (US)
Release Date: November 24, 1948 (Italy)
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