my voyage to italy: pt. 6

"Bicycle Thieves"
dir., Vittorio De Sica
1948
WARNING: CLIP IS A POTENTIAL SPOILER

I remember being absolutely devastated the first time I saw Vittorio De Sica's seminal "Bicycle Thieves." I watched it in a chilly screening room for a film class in college and it really provoked something in me. Never before had film come across as a medium that is not only made for the masses for entertainment but it can also be art that speaks about the human experience and serves as some sort of impetus for social and cultural reflection. "Bicycle Thieves" is everything I love about Italian cinema, especially in the post-World War II era of neo-realism. Not only is there a clear sense of time and place but we agonize as we watch a man struggle for his cultural identity in a land that is recovering from it being stripped away from them.

The set up is simple: a man searches for his stolen bike. However, his bike is a symbol of upward mobility and socio-economic security as it transports him to and from work. Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) is like many Italian men at the time, trying to re-integrate into the job market after the war. He soon learns though that being apart of the crowd can be too compromising and instill a false sense of hope, faith, and identity. Added to this is his young son, Bruno (Enzo Staiola), who travels with him on his day long odyssey. No other film so eloquently and affectingly reveals such genuine truths about father and son relationships. The father is the absolute model for his son and teaching him morals and values in the new Italy is as important to him as getting his bike back. Although his pride gets the best of him more often than not throughout the film, his son recognizes but never verbalizes that his father is not a super hero but a human being desperately and admirably trying to provide for his family.

Film is never this articulate or resonate. As I navigated my way through the contemporary Italy last summer that is so different from De Sica's world of economic rebirth and a people reclaiming their culture, I couldn't help think of Antonio and his stolen bike.