The Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Screenwriter: Cesare Zavattini
Historical context
By the end of World War II, it was perhaps inevitable that there would be a backlash against the escapist “white telephone” films that had been encouraged by Mussolini to keep the collective mind of the populace off social conditions and politics. When it came, Vittorio De Sica was one of the filmmakers who led the charge. De Sica’s career in motion pictures began as an actor. During the 1930s he worked steadily as a leading man in light romantic comedies. In 1939 he made the move to directing, but it was not until 1944 that the style for which he would become renowned began to emerge. It was in that year that he first teamed with screenwriter Cesare Zavattini to make The Children Are Watching Us (I bambini ci guardano) in which the beginnings of a neorealist style can clearly be seen.
Narrative context
Neorealist films are known for departing from traditional principles of narrative structure in that they generally do not concern themselves with presenting a resolution to the primary external conflict that seems to be driving the plot. Certainly, De Sica does not resolve the problem of Ricci’s missing bicycle. This leads some viewers to complain that neorealist films are dull because “nothing happens.” Do you agree that nothing happens in this film?
The restaurant scene in which Ricci buys his son a meal, knowing that he can’t afford it, is significantly different in tone from most of the rest of the film. Why do you think Zavattini and De Sica included this scene?
What role does dramatic irony play in this story?
In what way(s) does this film violate your expectations of how the story will play out?
Aesthetic context
It is sometimes mistakenly asserted that neorealist films are stylistically bland; that the filmmakers refrained from the use of camera techniques in order to preserve a more documentary-like appearance. Can you cite instances from the film in which De Sica uses his camera expressively, and even poetically?
Although professional actors were used, neorealist filmmakers would often cast non-actors, even in major roles, because they looked the part. Lamberto Maggiorani , who plays Ricci, is one example. How would the film have been different if De Sica had cast the kind of actor he himself had once been, a well-known matinee idol?
Rhetorical context
In what way(s) does this film qualify as social criticism?
What aspects of Italian society of the period are critically examined?
Does the film propose any solutions to the problems it illuminates?
