The Bicycle Thief: The Cultural Aspects Of Italian Culture

Aspects of Italian culture have been portrayed through post World War II cinema through the dissection of the historic socio-economic problems that have besieged Rome and its citizens. The neorealism movement gave birth to the evolution of emphasis on social realism. Roger Ebert describes 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” (qtd. in The Bicycle Thief Movie Review). The Italian neorealist quintessential notion of hybridizing social content, historical actuality, political commitment, realist treatment, and popular settings is brilliantly illustrated through

Bondanella emphasizes that, “such figures as Rossellini, De Sica, or Fellini sympathize with Zavattini’s reverence for everyday reality, which he terms an “unlimited trust in things, facts, and people,” rarely if ever do they equate their artistic intentions with traditional literary or cinematic realism” (Bondanella 62). Filmmakers such as: Rossellini, De Sica, and Fellini declared through cinema that neorealism is a way of seeing reality without prejudice; furthermore, Rossellini declared that realism was “simply the artistic form of the truth” (Bondanella 62). The extraordinary efforts of the triumvirate Rossellini, De Sica, and Fellini and their capability to portray a true aspect realism revealed to the world the socio-economic conditions that plagued Italy during and post-World War II. The triumvirate’s ability to expose the traditional realist perception of cinema and impact the history of Italian cinema through the use of nonprofessional actors, exclusively shot on location, and the exploration of the socio-economic issues distinguished the neorealism era of cinema from the other cinematic

The opening scene of Bicycle Thieves, portrays the economic impact of WWII on the citizens on Italy by displaying the large unemployed crowd and their difficulties with finding a job. As Bondanella points out, “De Sica selected the nonprofessionals playing Antonio and Bruno because of their particular mannerisms in their walk and facial expressions” (Bondanella 85). That is the two nonprofessional actor’s resembled everyday people which is an important characteristic of neorealism. Essentially, Antonio’s bicycle is stolen and it’s important that he has it back in order to provide for his family in the poverty stricken Italian economy. There is a prevailing scene where Antonio takes his frustration out on his son Bruno and slaps him. When Bruno runs off hurt by what his father has done to him Antonio proceeds to search for him. He encounters a crowd of people surrounding a lake and is immediately distraught that his son may have just drowned; however, when Bruno calls down to him from a church Antonio realizes that his son is more important than his stolen bicycle. Here De Sica is highlighting the everyday lives of neorealism and the difficulties that were actually happening to the people of Italy. As Bondanella points