Bicycle Thieves (1948)

The film that topped Sight and Sound’s inaugural Greatest Films of All Time poll in 1952, Vittorio De Sica’s indelible neorealist parable offers a sharp-eyed portrait of Italy’s post-war privations.

A landmark of humanist filmmaking, Bicycle Thieves was a key work in the 1940s film movement known as Italian neo-realism. Like the wartime trilogy that Roberto Rossellini began with Rome: Open City (1945), it heralded a new kind of cinematic naturalism, employing non-professionals as actors and taking the camera out onto the streets to faithfully record the social realities of a Europe struggling to get back on its feet after WWII.

Adapted from a novel by Luigi Bartolini, the quiet tragedy of a father’s desperate hunt for a stolen bicycle that he depends on for his work has a fable-like simplicity. For all its vivid documentation of a downtrodden Rome, it is as a universal tale of human striving that De Sica’s film has proved influential.

“Bicycle Thieves not only embodies both aesthetically and politically the most important features of the Italian neorealist movement but also, with De Sica’s use of non-professional actors, social engagement and firm roots in the fabric of society, paved the way for hybridity in film and therefore the so-called ‘cinema of the real’.” Nico Marzano

“This painfully beautiful chronicle of life in post-World War II Rome salvages views of rundown streets, poverty and injustice with such precision and simplicity that the emotional punch of the finale is unparalleled.” Kaya Genç

“The gold standard for all human films about inequality.” Andrei Liimets

1948 Italy
Directed by
Vittorio De Sica
Written by
Oreste Biancoli, Suso Cecchi D'amico, Vittorio De Sica, Adolfo Franci, Gherardo Gherardi, Gerardo Guerrieri, Cesare Zavattini
Featuring
Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell
Running time
96 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Bicycle Thieves

Critics

Saleem Albeik
Palestine/France
Alberto Anile
Italy
Sharofat Arabova
Tajikistan
José Arroyo
Spain/UK
Abbas Baharloo
Iran
Alasdair Bayman
UK
Annie Berke
USA
Ranjita Biswas
India
Guido Bonsaver
Italy/UK
Nandana Bose
India
José Cabrera
Spain
Teesha Cherian
India
Anupama Chopra
India
Roberta Ciabarra
Australia
Gary Crowdus
USA
Thomas Doherty
USA
Angie Errigo
USA/UK
Arman Fatić
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Kaya Genc
Turkey
Houshang Golmakani
Iran
Fahmidul Haq
Bangladesh/USA
Mark Harris
USA
Susanna Helke
Finland
Caryn James
USA
Sheila Johnston
UK
Richard Koszarski
USA
Andrei Liimets
Estonia
Zhang Ling
China
Kalle Løchen
Norway
Nicola Marzano
Italy
Emily Maskell
UK
Cornelius Moore
USA
Clodualdo ("Doy") del Mundo
Philippines
Stuart Murray
UK
Amitava Nag
India
Venkateswaran Narayanan
India
Michael Newton
Netherlands
Cristiana Paternò
Italy
Mark Reid
UK
Sukhdev Sandhu
UK/USA
James Schamus
USA
Adam Solomons
UK
Can Sungu
Turkey/Germany
Brian Tallerico
USA
Teet Teinemaa
Estonia
Fabio Troncarelli
Italy
Kenneth Turan
USA
Ivan Velisavljević
Serbia
Sanjeev Verma
India
Saige Walton
Australia
Kevin Wynter
USA
Ramin Zahed
USA

Directors

Roy Andersson
Giuseppe Pupi Avati
Italy
Imruh Bakari
Saint Kitts and Nevis/UK
Sanjay Leela Bhansali
India
Charles Burnett
USA
Zach Cregger
USA
Marian Crisan
Romania
Michaël Dudok de Wit
Dionne Edwards
UK
Arie Esiri
Nigeria
Asghar Farhadi
Iran
Romola Garai
UK
Soudade Kaadan
UK
Anurag Kashyap
India
Daniel Kokotajlo
England
Dea Kulumbegashvili
Georgia
Ruijun Li
China
Alexander Payne
USA
Sally Potter
Mani Ratnam
India
Benny Safdie
USA
Josh Safdie
USA
Sami Tlili
Tunisia
Maryam Touzani
Morocco

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