Bicycle Theifs

By understanding Italian Neorealism, I will attempt to explain the effect of Italian Neorealism on the film Bicycle Theif. Italian Neorealism is also known as the golden age of Italian cinema. It is a national film movement that usually tells stories of the poor and the working class. The scenes are usually filmed on location and usually use non-professional actors. Italian Neorealism contents are usually about effect of world war II towards the difficult economy and moral value of the country. This shows the life of poverty and injustice and desperation. 

The Bicycle Theif shows the suffering of Antonio Ricci and Bruno Ricci as their life are already poor and barely has income to sustain the family. To get a job, Antonio Ricci has to struggle to get a bicycle that his wife Maria Ricci has to sell their bed sheets to get one. It also shows that his job and income depends on the bicycle he has which was later stolen on his first day on his job. He could be seen desperately looking for his stolen bicycle and even show his desperation pushing him to the limit that made him try to steal other peoples bicycle and caused him to be caught.  

Neorealism is the depiction of Realism, it focuses on the mise-en-shot and mise-en-scene to enhance the narrative of the film. The location they used in the scene shows the effect of the world war II, it shows the city of ruins. This could be seen in the scene like Antonio Ricci's house, the road are destroyed and the buildings could be seen like its newly built. In the city, buildings could be seen mixed with old and new buildings.

All the actors used in the film are unprofessional actors, the only professional actor in the film is the man distributing the flies at the stairs. 

The scenes in the film used are long takes. It usually have shots that has duration of 20 seconds and above. The purpose of these long takes are to let the audience immerse themselves into the surrounding of the scene.