Vittorio de Sica's 1948 masterpiece of the Italian neorealist movement, regularly listed amongst the greatest films ever made.
A man, hoping...
Vittorio de Sica's 1948 masterpiece of the Italian neorealist movement, regularly listed amongst the greatest films ever made.
A man, hoping to support his desperate family with a new job, loses his bicycle - his means of transport required for work. The simple story follows the man and his wide-eyed son as they try to track down the bike on the streets of post-war, poverty-stricken Rome.
Using untrained actors and shot in everyday settings, Bicycle Thieves (also known as The Bicycle Thief) has come to define the neoralist film movement and had a major influence on film. Martin Scorsese: "A film of powerful simplicity, and that's a rare quality in movies."
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99 %70 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® rating
94 %34,408 reviewsAudience score rating
"The lasting soul of Thieves' pure cinema poverty-parable finally nestles in its deeply affecting father-son pairing in which seven-year-old Staiola dazzles as one of cinema's wonder-kids."
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Total Film
Total Film"Again the Italians have sent us a brilliant and devastating film in Vittorio De Sica's rueful drama of modern city life, The Bicycle Thief."
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The New York Times
The New York Times"This is poverty's authentic sting: banal and horrible loss of dignity. Bicycle Thieves is a brilliant, tactlessly real work of art."
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The Guardian
The Guardian"The Bicycle Thief is so well-entrenched as an official masterpiece that it is a little startling to visit it again after many years and realize that it is still alive and has strength and freshness."
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Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert"This film manages to appeal to the better angels of our nature in a way that only deepens as we grow older along with the film."
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Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times"One of the great, perfect crystalisations of a specific point in time into a particular film, this is one of the greatest cinematic experiences ever."
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Empire Magazine
Empire MagazineBicycle Thieves | Details
Award winner- Honory Award for Best Foreign film at the Academy Awards 1950. Best Film at the BAFTA Awards 1950. Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes 1950.
- Runtime
- 87
- Genre
- Drama
- Country of origin
- Italy
