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Bicycle Thieves, Movie

Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette) 1948

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Vittorio de Sica's 1948 masterpiece of the Italian neorealist movement, regularly listed amongst the greatest films ever made. More

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." Hide

27 votes / 2 comments The Talk

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    • Petra

      One of the most beautiful, touching films ever made.

    • Ralph Johansson

      I saw this masterpice some 50 years ago. it was great then and its great now. There its somthing

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Press Reviews

Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)

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. Full review.

Empire (UK)

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. Full review.

Guardian (UK)

This is poverty's authentic sting: banal and horrible loss of dignity. Bicycle Thieves is a brilliant, tactlessly real work of art. Full review.

Los Angeles Times

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. Full review.

New York Times

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. Full review.

Total Film (UK)

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. Full review.