“True function of cinema is not to tell fables … the cinema must tell reality as if it were a story; there must be no gap between life and what is on the screen.” – CEZARE ZAVATTINI
This essay examines the life of lower-middle class in a city with the help of the movie Bicycle Thieves. Despite having been released during the middle of the 20th century, its continuing relevance in the present makes it an interesting topic of discussion. Bicycle Thieves is an Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica released in 1948. This film is widely regarded as one of the best films of the 20th century and has been applauded for the realistic portrayal of post-war Italy and its effect on the lower class of the Italian society. Bicycle Thieves is categorised …show more content…
The opening shot shows the unemployed workers eagerly waiting for their names to be called from a list compiled by the employment exchange. While some jobs have crowds eyeing for them, other jobs fail to employ workers because of the lack of skilled labour specific to the nature of the work. Ricci, to his surprise, is taken in for the job of posting advertisement bills, which requires a bicycle. Maria, Ricci's wife, pawns her bedsheets, which she received as dowry, to redeem Ricci's cycle. Ricci is posted to his new job, but the family's happiness is short lived. While at work, the bicycle is stolen, leaving Ricci desperate to find it, without which he will lose his job, which is his last strand. Broken hearted, he goes to see his friends who advise him to search markets where stolen goods have a chance of resurfacing. Despite searching for a whole day, they fail to recover the bicycle. Depressed, Ricci decides to go to the 'seer' to know where his bicycle is. She tells him, “you’ll find the bike today, or not at all". Ricci spots the thief right after he comes out of the seer's house and chases him. The thief denies stealing the bicycle and faints after a bout of fits. Ricci is accused of falsely defaming the thief by his friends and neighbours. The police …show more content…
This condition comes up again in the scene where Maria pawns her sheets in a shop, with countless other men and women. Ricci, in the same scene, gazes melancholically at the tall shelves filled with sheet bundles of various other families who, like Ricci's, were caught in the spell of unemployment.” Between 1946 and 1947, UNRRACASAA funds were used to build modern, though cramped, housing units (of the type seen in Bicycle Thieves). This measure- along with increased social assistance programs, pensions and family allowances- helped to tide the social unrest brought about by the revocation of the ban on job dismissals in July 1947. The Partita Communista Italiano did not demand a redistribution of wealth, nationalization of industry, institution of welfare state; neither did the films of that period.” (Stephen Snyder,
This essay examines the life of lower-middle class in a city with the help of the movie Bicycle Thieves. Despite having been released during the middle of the 20th century, its continuing relevance in the present makes it an interesting topic of discussion. Bicycle Thieves is an Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica released in 1948. This film is widely regarded as one of the best films of the 20th century and has been applauded for the realistic portrayal of post-war Italy and its effect on the lower class of the Italian society. Bicycle Thieves is categorised …show more content…
The opening shot shows the unemployed workers eagerly waiting for their names to be called from a list compiled by the employment exchange. While some jobs have crowds eyeing for them, other jobs fail to employ workers because of the lack of skilled labour specific to the nature of the work. Ricci, to his surprise, is taken in for the job of posting advertisement bills, which requires a bicycle. Maria, Ricci's wife, pawns her bedsheets, which she received as dowry, to redeem Ricci's cycle. Ricci is posted to his new job, but the family's happiness is short lived. While at work, the bicycle is stolen, leaving Ricci desperate to find it, without which he will lose his job, which is his last strand. Broken hearted, he goes to see his friends who advise him to search markets where stolen goods have a chance of resurfacing. Despite searching for a whole day, they fail to recover the bicycle. Depressed, Ricci decides to go to the 'seer' to know where his bicycle is. She tells him, “you’ll find the bike today, or not at all". Ricci spots the thief right after he comes out of the seer's house and chases him. The thief denies stealing the bicycle and faints after a bout of fits. Ricci is accused of falsely defaming the thief by his friends and neighbours. The police …show more content…
This condition comes up again in the scene where Maria pawns her sheets in a shop, with countless other men and women. Ricci, in the same scene, gazes melancholically at the tall shelves filled with sheet bundles of various other families who, like Ricci's, were caught in the spell of unemployment.” Between 1946 and 1947, UNRRACASAA funds were used to build modern, though cramped, housing units (of the type seen in Bicycle Thieves). This measure- along with increased social assistance programs, pensions and family allowances- helped to tide the social unrest brought about by the revocation of the ban on job dismissals in July 1947. The Partita Communista Italiano did not demand a redistribution of wealth, nationalization of industry, institution of welfare state; neither did the films of that period.” (Stephen Snyder,