Bicycle Thieves
Encyclopedia
Bicycle Thieves also known as The Bicycle Thief, is a 1948 Italian neorealist
film directed by Vittorio De Sica
. It tells the story of a poor man searching the streets of Rome
for his stolen bicycle, which he needs to be able to work. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Luigi Bartolini
and was adapted for the screen by Cesare Zavattini
. It stars Lamberto Maggiorani
as the poor man searching for his lost bicycle and Enzo Staiola
as his son.
It was given an Academy Honorary Award
in 1950, and, just four years after its release, was deemed the greatest film of all time by the magazine Sight & Sound
s poll of filmmakers and critics in 1952. The film placed sixth as the greatest ever made in Sight & Sound's latest directors' poll, conducted in 2002, and was ranked in the top 10 of the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.
economy of Italy
. With a wife and two children to support, he is desperate for work. He is delighted to at last get a good job pasting up posters, but he must have a bicycle
. He is told unequivocally, "No bicycle, no job." His wife Maria pawns their bedsheets in order to get money to redeem his bicycle from the pawnbroker.
On his first day of work, Antonio's bicycle is stolen by a young thief, who snatches it when he is putting up a poster. Antonio gives chase, but to no avail. He goes to the police
, but there is little they can do. The only option is for Antonio, his young son Bruno, and his friends to walk the streets of Rome themselves, looking for the bicycle. They search Rome's largest square Piazza Vittorio
, where they encounter countless bicycles and parts resembling his own. They falsely accuse a merchant of possessing the stolen bike, and their task seems futile. Subsequently, at the market at Porto Portese Antonio and Bruno believe they have found the thief trying to pawn the bike to an old man, and they chase him but he manages to get away. They then pursue the old man into a church, where they accuse him of knowing where the purported thief resides. The commotion disrupts the mass, and the old man manages to slip away.
During a rare treat of a meal in a restaurant, Antonio shares his shattered dreams with his son. Desperate, Antonio even visits the dubious fortune teller that he had earlier mocked. However, she merely doles out to him the vague and unhelpful, "you'll find the bike quickly, or not at all." Antonio hands over some money and leaves.
As he walks out of the clairvoyant's house, he encounters the thief and chases him into a whorehouse. Antonio takes the thief outside and is set upon by the hostile neighbours. Bruno slips off to fetch a policeman. Meanwhile, Antonio angrily accuses the thief of stealing his bike, but the young man denies it. When the policeman arrives, the thief is lying on the ground, having or feigning a seizure. The irate neighbours blame Antonio for causing the "innocent" boy's fit.
The policeman tells Antonio that his case is weak; he did not catch the thief red-handed, nor did he get the names of any witnesses, and the policeman is certain the neighbours will give the thief an alibi. Antonio gives up and walks away in despair, to the jeers of the crowd.
Sitting on the curb outside a packed football stadium, Antonio sees hundreds and hundreds of parked bicycles. As he cradles his head in despair, a fleet of bicycles speeds past him. After vacillating for some time, he tries to steal one outside an apartment. However, he is caught by a crowd of angry men who slap and humiliate him in front of his son. The bicycle's owner sees how upset Bruno is and mercifully declines to press charges. Antonio and his son walk away, dejected.
film; a movement begun by Roberto Rossellini
's Rome, Open City
(1945), which attempted to give a new degree of realism to cinema. Following the precepts of the movement, De Sica shot only on location in Rome, and instead of professional actors used nonactors with no training in performance; for example, Lamberto Maggiorani, the leading actor, was a factory worker. The picture is also in the Vatican's Best Films List for portraying humanistic values.
, film critic for The New York Times
, lauded the film and its message in his review. He wrote, "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. Widely and fervently heralded by those who had seen it abroad (where it already has won several prizes at various film festivals), this heart-tearing picture of frustration, which came to [the World Theater] yesterday, bids fair to fulfill all the forecasts of its absolute triumph over here. For once more the talented De Sica, who gave us the shattering Shoeshine, that desperately tragic demonstration of juvenile corruption in post-war Rome, has laid hold upon and sharply imaged in simple and realistic terms a major—indeed, a fundamental and universal—dramatic theme. It is the isolation and loneliness of the little man in this complex social world that is ironically blessed with institutions to comfort and protect mankind".
When the film was re-released in the late 1990s Bob Graham, staff film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle
, gave the drama a positive review: "The roles are played by non-actors, Lamberto Maggiorani as the father and Enzo Staiola as the solemn boy, who sometimes appears to be a miniature man. They bring a grave dignity to De Sica's unblinking view of post-war Italy. The wheel of life turns and grinds people down; the man who was riding high in the morning is brought low by nightfall. It is impossible to imagine this story in any other form than De Sica's. The new black-and-white print has an extraordinary range of grey tones that get darker as life closes in".
's 2001 film Beijing Bicycle
explores similar themes of poverty and alienation, set in late 20th-century Beijing
. Such similarities, and the bicycle theft driving the plot, have led critics to see parallels in the films.
Bicycle Thieves also influenced several Indian films
. It was cited as an influence on several early Indian art films
, including Bimal Roy
's Two Acres of Land (1953, Do Bigha Zameen) and Satyajit Ray
's Pather Panchali (1955). The plot of the 2007 Tamil film
, Polladhavan
, which features Dhanush
trying to find his stolen bike, was loosely inspired by Bicycle Thieves. Indian director Anurag Kashyap
cites this film as his inspiration for becoming a director At least one critic cited it as an influence on Zeze Gamboa's Angolan film O Heroi (The Hero, 2004), in which a war veteran's prosthetic leg is stolen.
The film was also parodied
in the 1989 film The Icicle Thief
.
The film was also on TCM
's top 15 most influential films list.
It was ranked #4 in Empire
magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.
of The Observer
(UK
), this alternative title is misleading, "because the desperate hero eventually becomes himself a bicycle thief". The film is released in the UK as the more accurate Bicycle Thieves, and the recent Criterion Collection release in North America uses the plural title.
When the film was re-released in the late 1990s Bob Graham, staff film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle
, was quoted as saying that he preferred the title The Bicycle Thief, stating, "Purists have criticized the English title of the film as a poor translation of the Italian ladri, which is plural. What blindness! The Bicycle Thief is one of those wonderful titles whose power does not sink in until the film is over".
Italian neorealism
Italian neorealism is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors...
film directed by Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio de Sica
Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....
. It tells the story of a poor man searching the streets of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
for his stolen bicycle, which he needs to be able to work. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Luigi Bartolini
Luigi Bartolini
Luigi Bartolini was an Italian painter, writer, and poet. He is most well known for his novel, Bicycle Thieves, upon which the Italian neorealist film directed by Vittorio De Sica and of the same title was based...
and was adapted for the screen by Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema.-Brief biography:...
. It stars Lamberto Maggiorani
Lamberto Maggiorani
Lamberto Maggiorani was an Italian actor notable for his portrayal of Antonio Ricci in Ladri di Biciclette ....
as the poor man searching for his lost bicycle and Enzo Staiola
Enzo Staiola
Enzo Staiola is an Italian actor best known for playing, at the age of seven, the role of Bruno Ricci, the son of protagonist Antonio Ricci in Vittorio De Sica's neorealist 1948 film Bicycle Thieves...
as his son.
It was given an Academy Honorary Award
Academy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award, instituted in 1948 for the 21st Academy Awards , is given by the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to celebrate motion picture achievements that are not covered by existing Academy Awards, although prior winners of...
in 1950, and, just four years after its release, was deemed the greatest film of all time by the magazine Sight & Sound
Sight & Sound
Sight & Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute .Sight & Sound was first published in 1932 and in 1934 management of the magazine was handed to the nascent BFI, which still publishes the magazine today...
s poll of filmmakers and critics in 1952. The film placed sixth as the greatest ever made in Sight & Sound's latest directors' poll, conducted in 2002, and was ranked in the top 10 of the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.
Plot
Antonio Ricci is an unemployed man in the depressed post-World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
economy of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. With a wife and two children to support, he is desperate for work. He is delighted to at last get a good job pasting up posters, but he must have a bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
. He is told unequivocally, "No bicycle, no job." His wife Maria pawns their bedsheets in order to get money to redeem his bicycle from the pawnbroker.
On his first day of work, Antonio's bicycle is stolen by a young thief, who snatches it when he is putting up a poster. Antonio gives chase, but to no avail. He goes to the police
Italian police
Law enforcement in Italy is provided by eight separate police forces, six of which are national groups in Italy.During 2005 in Italy, the number of active police officers from all agencies totaled 324,339, the highest number in the European Union both overall and per capita, twice the number of...
, but there is little they can do. The only option is for Antonio, his young son Bruno, and his friends to walk the streets of Rome themselves, looking for the bicycle. They search Rome's largest square Piazza Vittorio
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II (Rome)
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, also known as Piazza Vittorio, is a piazza in Rome, in the Esquilino rione. It is served by the Vittorio Emanuele Metro station....
, where they encounter countless bicycles and parts resembling his own. They falsely accuse a merchant of possessing the stolen bike, and their task seems futile. Subsequently, at the market at Porto Portese Antonio and Bruno believe they have found the thief trying to pawn the bike to an old man, and they chase him but he manages to get away. They then pursue the old man into a church, where they accuse him of knowing where the purported thief resides. The commotion disrupts the mass, and the old man manages to slip away.
During a rare treat of a meal in a restaurant, Antonio shares his shattered dreams with his son. Desperate, Antonio even visits the dubious fortune teller that he had earlier mocked. However, she merely doles out to him the vague and unhelpful, "you'll find the bike quickly, or not at all." Antonio hands over some money and leaves.
As he walks out of the clairvoyant's house, he encounters the thief and chases him into a whorehouse. Antonio takes the thief outside and is set upon by the hostile neighbours. Bruno slips off to fetch a policeman. Meanwhile, Antonio angrily accuses the thief of stealing his bike, but the young man denies it. When the policeman arrives, the thief is lying on the ground, having or feigning a seizure. The irate neighbours blame Antonio for causing the "innocent" boy's fit.
The policeman tells Antonio that his case is weak; he did not catch the thief red-handed, nor did he get the names of any witnesses, and the policeman is certain the neighbours will give the thief an alibi. Antonio gives up and walks away in despair, to the jeers of the crowd.
Sitting on the curb outside a packed football stadium, Antonio sees hundreds and hundreds of parked bicycles. As he cradles his head in despair, a fleet of bicycles speeds past him. After vacillating for some time, he tries to steal one outside an apartment. However, he is caught by a crowd of angry men who slap and humiliate him in front of his son. The bicycle's owner sees how upset Bruno is and mercifully declines to press charges. Antonio and his son walk away, dejected.
Cast
- Lamberto MaggioraniLamberto MaggioraniLamberto Maggiorani was an Italian actor notable for his portrayal of Antonio Ricci in Ladri di Biciclette ....
as Antonio Ricci - Enzo StaiolaEnzo StaiolaEnzo Staiola is an Italian actor best known for playing, at the age of seven, the role of Bruno Ricci, the son of protagonist Antonio Ricci in Vittorio De Sica's neorealist 1948 film Bicycle Thieves...
as Bruno Ricci, Antonio's son - Lianella CarellLianella CarellLianella Carell was an Italian film actress and screenwriter. She appeared in 18 films between 1948 and 1958...
as Maria Ricci, Antonio's wife - Gino Saltamerenda as Baiocco, Antonio's friend who helps search
- Vittorio Antonucci as Bicycle thief
- Giulio Chiari as Beggar
Background
Bicycle Thieves is the best known neo-realistItalian neorealism
Italian neorealism is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors...
film; a movement begun by Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Rossellini was one of the directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing films such as Roma città aperta to the movement.-Early life:Born in Rome, Roberto Rossellini lived on the Via Ludovisi, where Benito Mussolini had...
's Rome, Open City
Rome, open city
Rome, Open City is a 1945 Italian war drama film, directed by Roberto Rossellini. The picture features Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani and Marcello Pagliero, and is set in Rome during the Nazi occupation in 1944...
(1945), which attempted to give a new degree of realism to cinema. Following the precepts of the movement, De Sica shot only on location in Rome, and instead of professional actors used nonactors with no training in performance; for example, Lamberto Maggiorani, the leading actor, was a factory worker. The picture is also in the Vatican's Best Films List for portraying humanistic values.
Critical reception
Bosley CrowtherBosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
, film critic for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, lauded the film and its message in his review. He wrote, "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. Widely and fervently heralded by those who had seen it abroad (where it already has won several prizes at various film festivals), this heart-tearing picture of frustration, which came to [the World Theater] yesterday, bids fair to fulfill all the forecasts of its absolute triumph over here. For once more the talented De Sica, who gave us the shattering Shoeshine, that desperately tragic demonstration of juvenile corruption in post-war Rome, has laid hold upon and sharply imaged in simple and realistic terms a major—indeed, a fundamental and universal—dramatic theme. It is the isolation and loneliness of the little man in this complex social world that is ironically blessed with institutions to comfort and protect mankind".
When the film was re-released in the late 1990s Bob Graham, staff film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, gave the drama a positive review: "The roles are played by non-actors, Lamberto Maggiorani as the father and Enzo Staiola as the solemn boy, who sometimes appears to be a miniature man. They bring a grave dignity to De Sica's unblinking view of post-war Italy. The wheel of life turns and grinds people down; the man who was riding high in the morning is brought low by nightfall. It is impossible to imagine this story in any other form than De Sica's. The new black-and-white print has an extraordinary range of grey tones that get darker as life closes in".
Influence
Wang XiaoshuaiWang Xiaoshuai
Wang Xiaoshuai is a Chinese film director, screenwriter and occasional actor. He is commonly grouped under the loose association of filmmakers known as the Sixth Generation of the Cinema of China....
's 2001 film Beijing Bicycle
Beijing Bicycle
Beijing Bicycle is a 2001 Chinese drama film by Sixth Generation Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai, with joint investment from the Taiwanese Arc Light Films and the French Pyramide Productions. The film stars first-time actors Cui Lin and Li Bin, supported by the already established actresses Zhou...
explores similar themes of poverty and alienation, set in late 20th-century Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. Such similarities, and the bicycle theft driving the plot, have led critics to see parallels in the films.
Bicycle Thieves also influenced several Indian films
Cinema of India
The cinema of India consists of films produced across India, which includes the cinematic culture of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Indian films came to be followed throughout South Asia and...
. It was cited as an influence on several early Indian art films
Parallel Cinema
The Indian New Wave, commonly known in India as Art Cinema or Parallel Cinema as an alternative to the mainstream commercial cinema, is a specific movement in Indian cinema, known for its serious content, realism and naturalism, with a keen eye on the sociopolitical climate of the times...
, including Bimal Roy
Bimal Roy
Bimal Roy was one of the most acclaimed Indian film directors of all time. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films like Do Bigha Zamin, Parineeta, Biraj Bahu, Madhumati, Sujata, and Bandini, making him an important director of Hindi cinema...
's Two Acres of Land (1953, Do Bigha Zameen) and Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray
Satyajit Ray was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature...
's Pather Panchali (1955). The plot of the 2007 Tamil film
Tamil cinema
Tamil cinema is the film industry based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, dedicated to the production of films in the Tamil language. It is based in Chennai's Kodambakkam district, where several South Indian film production companies are headquartered...
, Polladhavan
Polladhavan (2007 film)
Polladhavan is a Tamil film written and directed by Vetrimaran. it stars Dhanush and Divya Spandana in the main leads and it was released on 8 November 2007. The musical score is by G. V. Prakash Kumar, while Yogi B and Dhina composed each one song. Velraj is the director of cinematography and...
, which features Dhanush
Dhanush
Venkatesh Prabhu Kasthuri Raja , better known by his stage name Dhanush , is an Indian film actor, occasional playback singer and lyricist, working in the Tamil film industry...
trying to find his stolen bike, was loosely inspired by Bicycle Thieves. Indian director Anurag Kashyap
Anurag Kashyap (director)
Anurag Singh Kashyap is an Indian film director and screenwriter. As a director, he is known for Black Friday , a controversial and award-winning Hindi film about the 1993 Bombay bombings, followed by No Smoking , Dev D and Gulaal...
cites this film as his inspiration for becoming a director At least one critic cited it as an influence on Zeze Gamboa's Angolan film O Heroi (The Hero, 2004), in which a war veteran's prosthetic leg is stolen.
The film was also parodied
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
in the 1989 film The Icicle Thief
The Icicle Thief
The Icicle Thief is a 1989 film by Italian director Maurizio Nichetti, named in imitation of Vittorio De Sica's classic Italian neorealist movie, The Bicycle Thief . Some feel "The Icicle Thief" was created as a spoof of neorealism, which predominated Italian cinema after World War II...
.
The film was also on TCM
TCM
-Arts and sciences:* Trinity College of Music, a leading music conservatory, based in Greenwich, London, United Kingdom* Theory of Condensed Matter group, a theoretical physics research group in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge...
's top 15 most influential films list.
It was ranked #4 in Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.
Translated title
The original Italian title literally translates into English as Bicycle Thieves, biciclette and ladri being plural, but the film has usually been released in the United States as The Bicycle Thief. According to critic Philip FrenchPhilip French
Philip French is a British film critic and former radio producer.French, the son of an insurance salesman, was educated at the direct grant Bristol Grammar School, read Law at Oxford University. and post graduate study in Journalism at Indiana University, Bloomington on a scholarship.He has been...
of The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
(UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
), this alternative title is misleading, "because the desperate hero eventually becomes himself a bicycle thief". The film is released in the UK as the more accurate Bicycle Thieves, and the recent Criterion Collection release in North America uses the plural title.
When the film was re-released in the late 1990s Bob Graham, staff film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, was quoted as saying that he preferred the title The Bicycle Thief, stating, "Purists have criticized the English title of the film as a poor translation of the Italian ladri, which is plural. What blindness! The Bicycle Thief is one of those wonderful titles whose power does not sink in until the film is over".
Awards
- Locarno International Film FestivalLocarno International Film FestivalThe Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
, SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
: Special Prize of the Jury, Vittorio De Sica; 1949. - National Board of Review: NBR Award, Best Director, Vittorio De Sica; Best Film (Any Language), Italy; 1949.
- New York Film Critics Circle AwardsNew York Film Critics Circle AwardsNew York Film Critics' Circle Awards are given annually to honor excellence in cinema worldwide by an organization of film reviewers from New York City-based publications. It is considered one of the most important precursors to the Academy Awards....
: NYFCC Award, Best Foreign Language Film, Italy; 1949. - Academy AwardsAcademy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
: Honorary Award, Italy. Voted by the Academy Board of Governors as the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States during 1949; 1950. - Academy Awards: Nominated, Oscar, Best Writing, Screenplay, Cesare Zavattini; 1950.
- Bucharest Film FestivalBucharest Film FestivalThe Bucharest Film Festival is a defunct film festival active between 1948 and 1968 in the city of Bucharest founded by Nicolae Barbu. Originally known as the Bucharest Festival of Socialist Film due to its part funding by the Communist Party, the festival specialized in films of the Eastern Bloc...
: Golden Wolf for Best Film; 1950. - British Academy of Film and Television ArtsBritish Academy of Film and Television ArtsThe British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
: BAFTA Film Award, Best Film from any Source; 1950. - Bodil AwardsBodil AwardsThe Bodil Awards are the major Danish film awards given by Denmark's National Association of Film Critics . The awards are presented annually at a ceremony in the Imperial Cinema in Copenhagen. Established in 1948, it is one of the oldest film awards in Europe...
, CopenhagenCopenhagenCopenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
: Bodil, Best European Film (Bedste europæiske film), Vittorio De Sica; 1950. - Golden Globes: Golden Globe, Best Foreign Film, Italy; 1950.
- Cinema Writers Circle Awards, SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
: CEC Award, Best Foreign Film (Mejor Película Extranjera), Italy; 1951. - Kinema Junpo Awards, TokyoTokyo, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
: Kinema Junpo Award, Best Foreign Language Film, Vittorio De Sica; 1951. - Best Cinematography (Migliore Fotografia), Carlo Montuori.
- Best Director (Migliore Regia), Vittorio De Sica.
- Best Film (Miglior Film a Soggetto).
- Best Score (Miglior Commento Musicale), Alessandro Cicognini.
- Best Screenplay (Migliore Sceneggiatura), Cesare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Oreste Biancoli, Adolfo Franci, and Gerardo Guerrieri.
- Best Story (Miglior Soggetto), Cesare Zavattini.
External links
(German dialoge)- Bicycle Thieves essay at Criterion Collection by Godfrey Cheshire
- Bicycle Thieves video film review by A. O. ScottA. O. ScottAnthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
(The New York Times) at You Tube - Bicycle Thieves trailer at You Tube