✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper


Sign up by Email or Facebook.

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we sent newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Turning tips into memories

Get started Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Kids
  • Benefits
  • Membership
  • Get Started
  • Membership
  • Benefits
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Cinema

The Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio de Sica BFI Film Season

01 Aug 15 – 31 Aug 15, 6:00 PM – 12:00 AM

Highlights from the BFI film season include The Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio de Sica's canonical work of Italian neorealism and poverty. 

By CW Contributor on 15/7/2015

Vittorio de Sica, Bicycle Thieves film still
Vittorio de Sica, Bicycle Thieves film still
The Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio de Sica BFI Film Season The Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio de Sica BFI Film Season Caroline Halstead
As the BFI host a season on Italian neo realist films by auteur actor-director Vittorio de Sica, we select our favourites:
Vittorio de Sica: Bicycle Thieves
A tragicomic tale of obsession Italian poverty, The Bicycle Thieves is Vittorio de Sica's best known work – a canonical example of Italian neo realist cinema, The Bicycle Thieves is perhaps truest representation of de Sica's modus operandi. 
The film follows Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani), his wife Maria (Lianella Carell) and his young son Bruno (Enzo Staiola), who are wavering on the brink of poverty when Ricci finds employment. When his newly repurchased bicycle – an essential for his work – goes missing, he and Bruno go in pursuit of their elusive thieves to try to track down the stolen bicycle. A needle-in-a-haystack tale of a man's unrelenting pursuit of justice, the film reads like a parable for post-war Italian society.
De Sica's film did not employ professional actors, but instead took real people. With its startlingly naturalistic undertone, the film marked a new experience for de Sica's contemporary audiences. His characters, unwavering in their pursuit of survival and personal goals, are unable to possess the capacity fail to learn from their errors: the film's greatest tension is Ricci's inability to acknowledge his own skewed priorities and inability to compromise.
The film's successes are in the realist vision de Sica creates. As impoverished peers cluster around the family and distract from the task at hand, the Bicycle Thieves unfolds in a broad vision of Italian society, human encounter and social interaction lie at the film's core. 
Simple, direct and powerful, the Bicycle Thieves' message feels very much alive today. 
The BFI will be hosting a long run of The Bicycle Thieves. Click here to buy BFI festival tickets for the season. 


Looking for more?
Read our selection of films in the Vittorio de Sica retrospective




What The Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio de Sica BFI Film Season
Where BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, Southbank, London, SE1 8XT | MAP
Nearest tube Waterloo (underground)
When 01 Aug 15 – 31 Aug 15, 6:00 PM – 12:00 AM
Price £10
Website Click here to book via the BFI website.



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 5 - 7 March
Things to do in London this weekend: 5 - 7 March
Bryan Cranston in Your Honor, Sky Atlantic (Photo: Sky/Showtime)
Your Honor, Sky Atlantic review
Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing (Photo: Lionsgate/Sky)
New to Netflix UK: March 2021

A little more...

  • Competition

    A CHANCE TO WIN

    The BFI and Culture Whisper have joined forces, offering one lucky reader the chance to win a host of prizes in association with the Vittorio de Sica Italian Cinema season. These include:

    - Two tickets to any film in the BFI De Sica season this August.

    - A copy of The Italian Cinema Book – an essential guide to the most important historical, aesthetic and cultural aspects of Italian cinema, from 1895 to the present day.

    - A copy of the BFI's artwork for the Vittorio de Sica season

    - A selection of DVDs from Arrow Films including Bertolucci’s masterpiece The Conformist, plus Giuseppe Tornatore’s loving homage to the cinema: Cinema Paradiso.

    follow us & retweet to enter

    2-4-1 tickets

    Culture Whisper members can take advantage of our 2-4-1 ticket offer. To enjoy two tickets for the price of one simply quote DeSica241 online, in person or over the phone (020 7928 3232). Click here for more information from the BFI.

    What the critics say

    GUARDIAN

    'As unbearable as any horror film...This is poverty's authentic sting: banal and horrible loss of dignity. Bicycle Thieves is a brilliant, tactlessly real work of art.'

    Peter Bradshaw

    ROGER EBERT

    'Such films stand outside time. A man loves his family and wants to protect and support them. Society makes it difficult. Who cannot identify with that?'

    Roger Ebert

Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

The Bicycle Thieves trailer

Vittorio De Sica

BFI

Season

Italian Cinema

South Bank

Curzon Home Cinema

You might like

  • Vittorio De Sica, Shoeshine film still

    Shoeshine (1946) Vittorio de Sica BFI Film Season

  • Vittorio de Sica, Umberto D. film still

    Umberto D

  • Vittorio de Sica, Miracle in Milan film still

    Miracle in Milan, Vittorio de Sica BFI Film Season

  • Still from Room with a View, Helena Bonham Carter & Julian Sands

    Outdoor Cinema London 2015: British Film Institute's Summer Love Weekend

  • Still from Room with a View, Helena Bonham Carter & Julian Sands

    Outdoor Cinema London 2015: British Film Institute's Summer Love Weekend



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • What is Culture Whisper membership
  • Corporate membership
  • Give a gift membership
  • Retrieve a gift membership
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×