Movie Review "The Bicycle Thief"

[Lisa C.]

Just saw a movie critic's review today in the NY Times of the sixty year old movie, "The Bicycle Thief." According to the video clip, the movie is just as relevant today as when it was made and while incredibly sad, the main actor still manages to hold on to his humanity despite losing everything. The lead actor features a steel worker and his son. The movie was made using real people, not actors. Here is the link to the video review for anyone interested:

Critics' Picks: 'The Bicycle Thief' - Video Library - The New York Times

[Gala Placidia]

"The Bicycle Thief" is a timeless classic. A real work of art. I have watched it several times and I keep on discovering new things in it. Highly recommended.

[Noma]

I bought "Ladri di Biciclette" on DVD a few years ago. It's a very dark, moving film. Reminds me a bit of Sjöström's "The Wind".

[Carole B]

That is indeed a timeless classic, but not the only one by a long way. I was fortunate enough to be around when the television 'highlight' of the year was to show a film every morning at 10am when the Milan Fair was open in April time. (There was no TV in those days until early evening).

The joy was that they showed many of these 'neo-realism' films - films that from a profit making point of view, in those days, were well past thier sell by date. Apart from 'I Ladri' i remember clearly Rossellini's 'Roma Citta Aperta' with a very young Magnani - My goodness did that open my eyes. And of course the film which showed me just what was meant when the Milanese, that I knew, spoke of Terroni - 'Rocco and his brothers' . If you get a chance to see that one - it's a real eye opener.

I wonder if any of these are available on dvd now?

[Gala Placidia]

Yes Carole, quite a few films of the Italian Neorrealism from Vittorio de Sica, Rosselini, Fellini, Visconti and others are available in DVD, although they are not easy to find. You have to go to a large specialised store where they have many of the classics at international level. Also, sometimes newspapers and magazines run special collections as a supplement. Hubby got a few of those that way, but I have also purchased them at a large chain called FNAC which exists in both Spain and France. My daughter tells me that they do not have stores in London and I have not seen any of those in Italy. Happy hunting!!!!! They are worth the effort.

P.S. Another idea, try one of the Media World Megastores in Italy. They do have collections of classics.

[Cassini]

Available from Amazon

Bicycle Thieves [1948] [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell, Gino Salamerenda, Vittorio De Sica: DVD

Wonderful film.

[Lisa C.]

Another film that I have been trying to find for a long time is Fellini's "Le Notti di Cabiria". Not that long ago, a missing scene of the flim which was critical of the church, was located in a library and recently added back into the film. The church had objected to include it in the original release. The scene is known as The Man with the Sack, showing a man with a big sack going from one cave to another, giving out food for the poor residents of these makeshift shelters. The church objection rationale is clear – that should have been the church role.

Critique
Whilst overshadowed by Fellini’s subsequent cinematic masterpieces, Le Notti di Cabiria deserves to be considered one of the director’s best works, a poignant examination of the fallibility and resilience of the human spirit. An intensely moving film, it shows the futility of blind faith – in religion, chance and people – whilst, at the same time, reminding us that life, whatever hardships Fate throws in our way, is something to be treasured. It is not intentionally a religious film but it portrays the strength of the human spirit, to endure and overcome devastating personal crises, in a way that makes it a parable of modern life, and watching the film does prove to be something of a spiritual experience.
With its gritty portrayal of the life of prostitutes and the poor, Le Notti di Cabiria is more representative of Fellini’s neo-realist origins than his later era of grand, stylised, dramatic satires – although, historically and technically, the film marks the transition between these two stages in the director’s career. Because this film fell into comparative obscurity within a few years of its release, Fellini was able to re-use a lot of its material in his later films, notably La Dolce vita (1960).

One of the most moving sequences in Le Notti di Cabiria shows a taciturn man distributing food to poor people in the barren countryside outside Rome. The scene is important since it provides the impetus for Cabiria’s spiritual transformation, but it has only recently been restored to the film. Before the film was released in 1957, the Catholic Church insisted this sequence, which runs to about seven minutes, be cut, because it implied the Church was failing in its duty to care for the poor. Another sequence, which is both deeply moving and overtly mocking, is where Cabiria joins a pilgrimage to a holy shrine. Amongst a throng of pilgrims imploring their Santa Maria to forgive them and cure their ailments, only Cabiria appears genuinely to believe in the power of redemption. And, immediately after the ceremony, the only person who appears to have been marked by it – for better or for worse – is Cabiria. In a more tolerant era, it is easy to see how this “parable” fits within the Christian message of the Gospel. At the time, when the Catholic Church was constantly on its guard, it must have been enormously controversial, to say the least.

In many ways, Le Notti di Cabiria is one of Fellini’s least ambitious films. It is essentially concerned with a single theme: one person’s spiritual journey. Before our eyes, we see a thick-skinned, rather ignoble prostitute who has no control over her life, undergo a slow but sure transformation. She may not achieve her long wished for dreams, but where she ends up is far better than where she started – and she has the potential to move on and create for herself the life she had hoped for. It is a subtle yet profoundly moving work, made all the more effective because Fellini does not employ the clever cinematic devices he uses so well in his later films. The narrative structure is simple, the cinematography is restrained, yet the story he tells is intrinsically so powerful that the film stands as one of his greatest works.

The part of Cabiria is played by Fellini’s wife, Giulietta Masina, and it is impossible to imagine a better portrayal of the waif-like prostitute. Often described as the female equivalent of Chaplin’s loveable tramp, Masina’s Cabiria is plausibly the most touching and most believable creation in Fellini’s entire oeuvre. Initially in the film, Masina plays the part almost for laughs alone, and certainly her performance in the first third of the film is wondrously comical. But then, little by little, Masina reveals something of the true Cabiria, someone who has never experienced love and who, despite her protestations to the contrary, is a rather sentimental character. As we follow Cabiria on her journey of self-discovery, we grow to love her, and the experiences she endures at the end of the film – tragic, but not entirely so – are something we can easily sympathise with. Can the clown’s teardrop which Cabiria acquires in the film’s final sequence be a sign that her spiritual transformation is complete? Now that she is consciously aware of the comedy in her life’s drama, she can start to live, free of the fears and false hopes that have previously made her life a meaningless act. Without any doubt, the film’s impact owes as much to Masina’s performance as to Fellini’s direction.

Le Notti di Cabiria won the best foreign film Oscar in 1957 and Giulietta Masina won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in the same year. A decade later, the film was remade as a glitzy stage musical and film “Sweet Charity” (with Shirley MacLaine playing the lead role).

© James Travers 2004

[anne2]

Originally Posted by Lisa C.

Another film that I have been trying to find for a long time is [b]Fellini's "Le Notti di Cabiria".

In case you are still looking for it, you can buy it here :

Le notti di Cabiria - Federico Fellini - Film - DVD - IBS

and they will ship overseas.

[Gala Placidia]

Another great film and a fabulous interpretation by Giulietta Masina. Worth having in anyone's collection of Italian classics. My husband uses them to improve his Italian. He always selects the Italian language version with Italian subtitles and he watches each film several times. It really helps him.

[Bruno]

The "Bicycle Thief" is a great film and good for working on your language skills. Another favorite that is newer but covers a similar time in history is "Cinema Paradiso".