Every ten years since 1952, Sight & Sound magazine has polled film critics and scholars to nominate their list of the ten best films ever made. In 1952, the first film to top that poll was Vittorio de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves — just four years after its release. More than any other, this was the movie that cemented the idea of Italian neo-realism in popular culture, and while Bicycle Thieves has dropped down the list to #41 by 2022, it remains a beloved classic and a film school touchstone (it was =20th in Sight & Sound’s poll of filmmakers).
The neo-realist movement was born in Italy from the ashes of WWII and the collapse of the once glamorous local film industry. Filmmakers turned to stories of the working class, that could be filmed on the streets, without stars. In this case, De Sica and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini tell the simple tale of a labourer whose bike is stolen — without it, he cannot ply his trade and will rejoin the ranks of the unemployed. So he searches the city all day in hope of spotting it, his young son in tow.
There’s no melodrama here, but for all its austerity in the plotting department the film communicates how high the stakes are for its protagonist, and the pathos is irresistible. As the critic Godfrey Cheshire has argued, Bicycle Thieves has been as influential in its way as Citizen Kane. The French and Iranian new waves took their cue from here.
Sunday’s Pantheon screening will feature a 20-minute introduction and talkback.
One of the great, perfect crystalisations of a specific point in time into a particular film, this is one of the greatest cinematic experiences ever.
David Parkinson, Empire
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.
Roger Ebert (2000)
This film manages to appeal to the better angels of our nature in a way that only deepens as we grow older along with the film.
Kenneth Turan, LA Times (2010)
Vittorio De Sica
Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola
Italy
1948
In Italian with English subtitles
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Screenwriter
Vittorio De Sica, Suso Cecchi D’Amico, Gerardo Guerrieri
Cinematography
Carlo Montuori
Editor
Eraldo Da Roma
Original Music
Alessandro Cicognini
Also in This Series
Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise)
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The Wild Bunch (Director's Cut)
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The Ascent
During the darkest winter of WWII, two Soviet partisans venture through the backwoods of Belarus in search of food, always at risk of falling into enemy hands. In her masterpiece Larisa Shepitko zeroes in on profound spiritual and philosophical themes.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Céline Sciamma's queer costume drama -- about a painter covertly studying a young noblewoman who refuses to sit for her portrait -- was voted 30th Greatest Film Ever Made in a 2022 poll, the highest ranking film of the past decade.
I Am Cuba
Infused with a palpable love for the country and a righteous anger at the injustices of the Batista era, I Am Cuba features some of the jaw-dropping camerawork ever filmed. A euphoric celebration of Cuba, the Revolution, and revolutionary cinema.
The Colour of Pomegranates + The House Is Black
This month's Pantheon screening is a double-bill, Sergei Parajanov's extraordinary evocation of the life and work of C18th Armenian poet Sayat Nova, and, The House is Black (22 min), the only film directed by the great Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad.