Bicycle Thieves

Leslie Halliwell wrote of Bicycle Thieves that “the slight human drama is developed so that it has all the force of King Lear”. Simple in concept yet devastating in execution, Vittorio De Sica’s neo-realist masterpiece begins with the news that unemployed father-of-two Antonio Ricci has been offered a job as a poster-sticker.  There’s only one catch: he needs his own bicycle, and when it’s stolen on his first day, it has the impact of a thunderbolt.  With the help of his small son Bruno, whose round, earnest face suggests wisdom beyond his years, an increasingly desperate Ricci searches through markets, flophouses and even private apartments, a quest painting as vivid a picture of a palpably wounded city (Rome after World War II) as anyone has captured on film.  It’s the only film other than Citizen Kane to top Sight & Sound’s decennial poll of the best films ever made.

Special Features:

• Newly translated and more complete English subtitles

• Feature length audio commentary with Italian cinema expert Robert Gordon

• Timeless Cinema, a documentary portrait of actor, writer and director Vittorio De Sica

• Trailer