Bicycle Thieves

Post by **Leisher** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 2:15 pm

Yay college film class?

A film from 1948 set in post war Italy.

Jobs are scarce and one man is lucky enough to get a gig working for the city. The catch? He needs a bicycle and he pawned his to feed his family. So they stretch themselves even further to get it back.

The film really starts on the first day of his job when his bike is stolen. The rest of the film is his quest to reclaim the key to his family's happiness and survival. He does this with his young son in tow.

Had this been made today and in this country (this is an Italian film), it would be a wonky action-comedy hybrid. This isn't an action film nor is it a comedy, although there are elements of both. This is actually a really well made character piece detailing the struggle of supporting a family in desperate times, and doing so honestly.

Despite the subtitles AND the English dubbing constantly pulling me out of the film because they didn't match up, I was still emotionally invested at the end. I, legit, had an emotional reaction when the film ended, and I think that speaks volumes about the film's quality.

I'm thinking the dubbing/subtitle thing was due to the university. Maybe an Italian class that had no clue what the fuck they were doing?

An exceptional movie that still holds up today.

Post by **TheCatt** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 3:44 pm

The Bicycle Thief is considered a classic. The Italian name was pluralized, but it was released as a singular in the US originally.

The Icicle Thief was a late 80's parody of the film, if you're interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Icicle_Thief

I think I saw them both back in college when I was studying Italian.