Antonio Ricci Bicycle Thieves

It is often portrayed in films that Italians use their hands to “talk”. It is normally seen as the person looking directly at someone and the persons hand is palm up with their fingers all touching each other. Also during the trial, the judge targets Vinny for not having proper clothing on which Vinny takes it as a threat to him personally. Vinny does not want his image to be tainted from one person’s opinion even if the person is correct. When this happens, Vinny takes the comment and defends himself and mouths off to the judge. Also when Vinny first shows up, he is blasting music that could be considered unnecessary. This is portrayed as Italians being rude. The last example of a stereotype would be when Vinny says yutes and not youths. It would be considered that Italians take short cuts when saying things like the classic example of “forget about

In Bicycle Thieves, the female lead who plays Maria Ricci is also shown to be a working housewife, however her appearance is far more realistic than that of Joan Crawford. Maria Ricci is shown to be wearing tattered clothing, her hair is unkept, and she has what appears to be a completely naked face. Neorealism in Bicycle Thieves captures the raw essence of a woman living in poverty, who’s life revolves around her home, and the living conditions she has to endure on a daily

“Crocicchio” by Ardengo Soffici is a poem written in the era of the historic avant-garde in which Italy was facing a technological revolution; railways, cars and trams were all being transformed and as such the country saw a rise in the Italian Futurist movement. This movement praised all things modern by exploring new forms and technologies, treating them as a spectacle to be revered. The influence of these futuristic ideologies is clear in Crocicchio as Soffici paints a series of pictures of city life characterised by the chaos and activity which he experiences in his passing.

In the film The Bicycle Thief the audience is able to witness all the elements of neorealism. The use of non professional actors, to low class working characters, the flattening of scenes, and the location where it was shot at; are just a few of the essential elements that can be found in this film along with copious neorealist films. It is clear that the director used a variety of shots, angles, and set-ups in order to create certain emotions at very specific scenes in the film. From the start we are able to obtain a feel about the film’s tone as a result of the lack of color. The use of black and white truly helped the audience experience what Italy was like during the post World War 2. As a result of the depressing post war we are able to detect how the act of trying to improve oneself can sometimes lead to desperation.

The novel, I’m Not Scared, by Niccolo Ammaniti takes you on a memorable journey with Michele Amitrano, a nine year old boy, who learns valuable lessons on how trust and loyalty gives you more than greed and money-oriented acts. The journey arises in 1978 in Aqua Traverse during the time when the small, isolated town of Southern Italy suffered from a major heat wave. Around this time is when Michele makes a tragic discovery of a young, kidnapped Filippo who is chained up in a hole and made to live in the most inhumane conditions. Through the finding of Filippo Michele’s innocence becomes a thing of the past as it uncovers the truth about the real monsters in Aqua Traverse. Although, Michele never loses sight of his strong belief in the values of trust and loyalty even with his regretful selling out of Filippo to Salvatore Scardiccione and Pino’s (Papa’s) to deter him from knowing the truth but then his materialistic ways of winning him back after the truth is discovered.

In Peter Singer’s essay “The Singer Solution to World Poverty”, published on September 5th, 1999 in The New York Times Magazine, Singer claims that the solution to world poverty is for Americans to donate excess income to aid organizations. His article consists of a gathering of exaggerated situations which he uses to engage readers, while also adequately supporting an argument of moral duty by comparing the hypothetical scenarios to Americans who do not donate. Singer exhibits an appeal to pathos to a substantial amount throughout his article. The provided situations set an outline for the reader to feel certain, appealing emotions.

Bicycle Thieves gave viewers a clear view of crisis of masculinity within Antonio and this was further highlighted with the presence of a protagonist child in the film. In the film we see Antonio’s struggle to save his expected capability to provide for his family as a man (Ruberto & Wilson). However, the fact that Bruno was employed at the time Antonio got himself a job pointed out his incapability as a man and viewers starts to see Bruno as a small man rather than just a child because he was seemingly adequate

While Rossellini’s Rome Open City portrays the struggle for freedom, De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves tries to find the human face. He discovered it not in the exceptional sorrow of war but in the misery of daily life where war is just one aspect of the human lot. Bicycle Thieves takes place at a specific time under a unique series of social conditions that shape both its narrative and its embrace of the Neorealist style.

Set in the depression times of post-World War II Italy, Graziadei and De Sica’s (1948) The Bicycle Thief narrates the story of Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani), who, after finding a job as a bill poster, loses his bicycle to a young thief. He tries to look for it with his son Bruno (Enzo Staiola); however, despite seeing the thief, he fails to recover his bicycle. Desperate, he tries to steal a bike himself but is easily thwarted by a group of bystanders. They plan to bring him to the police station until the owner notices the weeping Bruno and, in an act of compassion, ask others to release the thief. In this paper, I argue that The Bicycle Thief

It shows our generation as lacking spirit and recognized by consumerism. The economic element plays a huge role in this film. The director is trying to prove that society cannot survive without material possessions. We are built on consumerism. The more possessions a person owns, the greater the economy is. The movie shows that consumers are attached to material possessions and that materialism and consumerism go hand in hand. Society has adopted the values that possessions are the highest value in life and that the only way to be successful is to have a large amount of nice material possessions. These items control the people that society has become and people spend their whole lives trying to find their identity through material items.

Progressing through the novel, Miss Lavish, an extravagant woman, guides Lucy to release control and embrace the unknown. Coming from an upper class, Lucy’s perspective on life has always been encompassed on social norms. The people she interacts with and rules she must follow all have a distinct relationship to her social class. Italy has given her the opportunity to go beyond the social standard that her upper-class stature puts forth. Miss Lavish tries to rotate Lucy’s close-minded view of the world because she believes that exploring will always lead to a wide variety of opportunities. When Mrs. Lavish says "One doesn't come to Italy for niceness," was the retort; "one comes for life. Buon Giorno! Buon Giorno!" (2.12) She is forcing Lucy to look up from the Baedeker which subtly begins to introduce the idea that this, in fact, represents Lucy slowly peering up from the metaphoric barrier the society has created for her. Lucy has always been a shy girl who was influenced by other people’s opinions on her, but coming to Italy gave her a new outlet to discover her own personality. It’s a new environment where she can explore not only the streets of Italy but the streets of her thought process as well. Mrs. Lavish unintentionally introduces to Lucy that in order to explore, you must be patient. Lucy finds that solutions to all issues are not just given. When she says, “As to the true Italy--he does not even dream of it. The true Italy is only to be found by patient observation." (2.12) It points Lucy in the direction of solving

This makes Guido’s father look smaller in the background. This is a very good example of mise-en-scene because it’s defined as the articulation of cinematic space. In this film Fellini took very good advantage of the frame. His way of placing characters is quite fascinating he almost places them like if they’d been on a stage while filmmaking.

In Italy, directors focused on the moral and economic conditions that came with the postwar generation quickly after the war and addressed the war instead of not acknowledging as German cinema did for so long. Unlike Alice in the Cities and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, films such as Bicycle Thieves depicted dislocation during the postwar period in the Neorealist style, made in 1948, this film differs greatly from the two former films discussed. In Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio De Sica delivers a political message regarding the difficulty of survival in postwar Italy, but also conveys a sense of psychological dislocation through the character development of Antonio Ricci. In many ways, Italy’s economy is much to blame for Ricci’s two-year unemployment in which the film begins, however, Ricci has as many internal struggles as he does externally. Neorealism lies heavily on the depiction of real life problems depicting common people and often used people from the street as actors, in this film the man who played Ricci, Lamberto Maggiorani, actually was a factory worker, which helps solidify the film’s authenticity. Towards the end of Bicycle Thieves, Ricci’s efforts to retrieve his stolen bicycle fail when the people that live near the boy who stole it side with the epileptic boy as he has a

André Bazin stated when referring to the renowned classic Bicycle Thieves, “the 'truth' suggested by the film was that, in a situation of social breakdown, the poor had to steal from the poor in order to survive” (51). Bicycle Thieves in its neorealist approach reflects this statement from Bazin in many aspects. We play witness to the cycle of victims turning into thieves described by Bazin from the beginning to the end of this film. In the article assigned with the film, it described the foreshadowing of these desperate times through the dent on the bike, which Antonio would allow even more damage to happen to it through it theft. The idea of theft is trivialized within the film, playing off the framework that at the time the poor truly had

Bicycle Thieves was directed by Vittorio De Sica and is considered to be a neorealist film. Neorealism in films is a style based on material reality. Neorealism challenges traditional narrative structures of film. Throughout the film, one can see various scenes where there are buses and trolleys, although the film is focused on relocating a stolen bicycle, which would save Antonio’s job. Antonio, the main character in the film, needs a bike to maintain his job. The buses and trolleys represent desperation in the film.