Enzo staiola getting slapped

They find a bicycle frame that might be Antonio's, but the vendors refuse to allow them to examine the serial number. They call over a carabinierewho orders the vendors to allow him to read the serial number. It does not match that of the missing bicycle, but the officer won't allow them to examine it for themselves. At the Porta Portese market, Antonio and Bruno spot someone he believes to be the thief with an old man.

The thief eludes them and the old man feigns ignorance. They follow him into a church where he too slips away from them. Antonio pursues the thief into a brothel, whose denizens eject them. In the street, hostile neighbors gather as Antonio accuses the thief, who conveniently falls into a fit for which the crowd blames Antonio. Bruno fetches a policeman, who searches the thief's apartment without success.

Antonio and Bruno leave in despair amid jeers and threats from the crowd. Antonio sees an unattended bicycle near a doorway and after much anguished indecision, instructs Bruno to take the tram to a stop nearby and wait. Antonio circles the unattended bicycle and jumps on it. Instantly, the hue and cry is raised and Bruno — who has missed the tram — is stunned to see his father pursued, surrounded and pulled from the bicycle.

As Antonio is being muscled toward the police station, the bicycle's owner notices Bruno in tears and, in a moment of compassion, tells the others to release Antonio. Antonio and Bruno then walk off slowly amid a buffeting crowd. Antonio fights back tears and Bruno takes his hand. Bicycle Thieves is the best-known work of Italian neorealisma movement that informally began with Roberto Rossellini 's Rome, Open City and brought a new degree of realism to Italian cinema.

Wanting to portray the poverty and unemployment of post-war Italy, [ 14 ] he co-wrote a script with Cesare Zavattini and others using only the title and few plot devices of a little-known novel of the time by poet and artist Luigi Bartolini. Lamberto Maggiorani, for example, was a factory worker.

Enzo staiola getting slapped

That some actors' roles paralleled their lives off screen added realism to the film. He later cast the 8-year-old Enzo Staiola when he noticed the young boy watching the film's production on a street while helping his father sell flowers. The film's final shot of Antonio and Bruno walking away from the camera into the distance is an homage to many of the films of Charlie Chaplinwho was De Sica's favourite filmmaker.

The original Italian title is Ladri di biciclette. It literally translates into English as "thieves of bicycles"; both ladri and biciclette are plural. In Bartolini's novel, the title referred to a post-war culture of rampant thievery and disrespect for civil order, countered only by an inept police force and indifferent allied occupiers.

When the film was screened in the United States inBosley Crowther referred to it as The Bicycle Thief in his review in The New York Times[ 5 ] and this came to be the title by which the film was known in English. When the film was re-released in the lates, San Francisco Chronicle film critic Bob Graham said that he preferred that version, stating, "Purists have criticized the English title of the film as a poor translation of the Italian ladriwhich is plural.

What blindness! The Bicycle Thief is one of those wonderful titles whose power does not sink in until the film is over". When Bicycle Thieves was released in Italy, it was viewed with hostility and as portraying Italians in a negative way. Italian critic Guido Aristarco praised it, but also complained that "sentimentality might at times take the place of artistic emotion.

Contemporary reviews elsewhere were positive. Widely and fervently heralded by those who had seen it abroad where it already has won several prizes at various film festivalsthis 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 Shoeshinethat 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". One need only to look at his face, his uncertain gait, his hesitant or fearful attitudes to understand that Ricci is already a victim, a diminished man who has lost his confidence.

When the film was re-released in the late s Bob Graham, staff film critic for the San Francisco Chroniclegave 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.

A man loves his family and wants to protect and support them. Society makes it difficult. Who cannot identify with that? Vittorio De Sica was a handsome man, much in demand as an actor, whose first films as a director were light comedies like the ones he often worked in. De Sica and others often used real people instead of actors, and the effect, after decades of Hollywood gloss, was startling to audiences.

Neorealism, as a term, means many things, but it often refers to films of working class life, set in the culture of poverty, and with the implicit message that in a better society wealth would be more evenly distributed. Both screenplays were by Zavattini. The poll is held every 10 years; byit was down to a tie for sixth, and then it dropped off the list.

Bicycles can be stolen. Everyone is trying to get by, and most don't want to hurt other people to get by. But Bicycle Thieves is also about how desperate times can lead to desperate measures, giving the film an inevitable - yet still shockingly sad - ending. You might not ever be in the exact situation this film depicts, but maybe you've been in a comparable one, or maybe you one day fear being caught up in a similar dilemma.

It's what makes Bicycle Thieves powerful and resonant. It's hard to imagine someone coming away from it entirely unmoved. Well, beyond the despair caused by the content in Bicycle Thievesperhaps one might also despair that, once watched, they've seen the best of what the Italian neorealism movement has to offer. Maybe that's true another brutal realitybut that doesn't mean Bicycle Thieves is the sole film of this kind that's worth watching.

Another undeniable classic of the movement is Umberto D. It was also directed by Vittorio De Sica, and revolves around a pensioner and his small dog trying to get by while living in Rome. Roberto Rossellini is another filmmaker heavily tied to the enzo staiola getting slapped, with some of his best Italian neorealism films including Rome, Open City and Stromboli Both De Sica and Rossellini were extremely influential on numerous filmmakers, most notably Martin Scorsesewhose excellent documentary, My Voyage to Italycovers the Italian neorealism movement in depth during its epic four-hour runtime.

It was a movement that captured a time and place in history, sure, but at its best, also did so in a way that led to telling stories that have proven continually relatable. With Bicycle Thieves being perhaps the most emotional and striking Italian neorealism film, it can also arguably be called the peak of that movement. It uses a simple story to unpack complex themes and ideas, all the while doing so in a enzo staiola getting slapped that's moving, relatable, and painfully honest about the struggles of working-class life.

It contains believable performances from a cast that was largely new to acting, and paces itself expertly, all the way until its final scene; itself one of the most memorable in cinema history. Bicycle Thieves is, to put it mildly, a great film, and undoubtedly one that still holds up, with the 75 years between its release and now doing nothing to dull its impact.

Watch on Max. Summary The Bicycle Thievesa classic Italian neorealist film, remains a powerful and shattering social drama even 75 years after its release. The film captures the struggles of post-war Italy, where money and jobs were scarce, highlighting the hardships of working-class life. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects.

Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Italian actor. Staiola in Bicycle Thieves Selected filmography [ edit ]. References [ edit ].