Bicycle Thieves is an Italian film about a man who loses faith in every sense of the word, figuratively and literally. Antonio pawned a Fides bike (“Fides” is Italian for faith), which was then stolen from him. The movie follows Antonio and his son looking for his bike around Rome. Antonio is a pessimistic man with no faith in anything and he is awfully quick to feel defeated. This could be a result of the chaotic time period in Italy he is in; a time of great economic depression. He turns to two traditional institutions that are known for instilling hope in people during troubled times for help finding his bicycle. The first is a spiritual institution, the church and a fortune teller, which at this time in Italy was exceptionally important. …show more content…
Just like in Rossellini’s Rome, Open City, De Sica made Bicycle Thieves a portrayal of the poverty and unemployment of post-war Italy. Italy was completely devastated and occupied by foreign armies after WWII. De Sica did a great job of doing this by only filming in the city instead of studio sets, so viewers can see firsthand the city in rubble. What better time for people to search for …show more content…
The first thing Antonio did after having his bike stolen reported it to the authorities. Unfortunately, the police took it down as a pro forma and filed the official complaint but told him to look for it himself in the end. The police trivialized Antonio’s problem when one officer asks the officer what’s the issue, the officer replies, “No, nothing, just a bike”. Despite the fact that the officers dismissed Antonio’s problem, he did not lose faith in the law until he found his thief. The officer asked Antonio how he knows if that young man is the thief, Antonio tells him he saw him steal his bike with his own two eyes. The cop tells him that is not enough evidence, the thief has a community of people saying otherwise. The police, too, were proven to be no