From regista [director] Vittorio De Sica, Ladri di biciclette, The Bicycle Thieves, is set in postwar-ravaged 1940s Rome, where Antonio Ricci is fortunate enough to be lotteried a job among the endless stream of unemployed breathren. The job comes on one condition–that he possesses a bicycle. Arguably a bicycle has never meant so much cinematically as it does in this film where a man and his family’s livelihood very pointedly rely upon it. Released to American audiences as The Bicycle Thief (instead of thieves), the title highlights the emphasis of American cinema on the individual as opposed to the Italian emphasis on the collective during this period.
The film is often highlighted as one of the defining films of Italian neorealismo, neorealism. This movement was characterized by stories set among the poor and working class, which were typically filmed on location and frequently utilized unprofessional actors. Other noteworthy films of this movement include De Sica’s Umberto D and Luchino Visconti’s La Terra Trema, The Earth Trembles. The latter was an adaptation of Giovanni Verga’s 1881 novel, I Malavoglia (released in English as The House by the Medlar Tree).
