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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.

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  • 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

The Bicycle Thieves trailer

Vittorio De Sica

BFI

Season

Italian Cinema

South Bank

Curzon Home Cinema

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