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Jeudi, septembre 23rd, 2010
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I first saw this movie as a student decades ago, and now seeing it all these years later on DVD, I’m amazed how well it holds up. It’s a lesson in what can be done on the cover with so little; there’s no budget here, largely amateur actors and a very simple set. It’s about an unemployed man, who gets a job offer that requires a bike, the sacrifice his family must invent to catch his bike out of hock, and what happens when the bike is stolen on the job. It’s successful because I consider the writers and director focus on some universal truths–about human nature, worship, pride, survival and–yes–family values. It’s disheartening to read some reviews that say: “I was bored,” “It wasn’t engaging enough,” or “Enough with the sunless & white.” It’s also disheartening to notice reviews from people with no plan of this film’s historical context. The poverty of post-WWII Europe produced a revolution in cinema, and this movie was one that redefined the medium’s possibilities. I can’t imagine someone not being moved by the quandary faced by the lead character in this film. I do regret that this movie has not gotten a elephantine “Criterion Collection” restoration, and I would have liked more “extras” on the DVD–like background information on the time the director and the Italian neo-realist movement. BTW, the more legal translation of the Italian title is “Bicycle Thieves,” which (after you examine the movie) you must agree is more appropriate.
(This review is for the Criterion Collection release of this dvd — not for the Image Entertainment release that many other reviews here refer to.)
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“Bicycle Thieves” (as it is wisely retranslated from the Italian for this unusual Criterion release) is one of the few “perfect films” — by which I mean a film that is in its hold map honest as it should be, lacking nothing, the kind of film where even apparent missteps tend to contribute indelibly to the overall impression of a film in which nothing could have been changed without damaging the film. Buy, for example, the scenario that instead of an unknown day laborer in the role of Antonio, de Sica had gone with David Selznick’s suggestion of Cary Grant (which was a condition for the film getting funded through American studios) . I have no doubt that this would have remained an intelligent film, and that Grant would have done an admirable job — but it would have been a totally different film and would have lost the fragility and vulnerability and delicacy (combined with hardness and objectivity) that compose this film so precious. We can all be grateful that De Sica chose to wait for an Italian investor who allowed him to create the film the device he and Zappatini had planned.
Without giving away anything of the set, I will say that the conclusion of the film is one of the most great I have seen — and carries an emotional weight that is earned rather than manipulated, and that can be compared only to a very few films: Chaplin’s City Lights and Kiarostami’s Close-up are the only films that advance to mind. De Sica strikes a very dazzling balance between realistic depiction of the harsh realities of life in postwar Rome, and a humanistic vison of the resourcefulness of individuals in the face of hopelessness and the enduring power of empathy, forgiveness, and like.
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The film looks better than ever on this unusual Criterion edition — it seemed to me that a few shots were a bit washed out but I can only recall that is due to the condition of the available negatives. Spots and dust and other imperfections seem to have been removed entirely, and the subtitles are quite apt and easy to read. The film alone would produce this status an primary one, but the booklet (containing some apt essays, including a very illuminating essay by Andre Bazin) and attached documentaries (one on neorealsm, one on screenwriter Zappatini, and one on De Sica) acquire this situation as a whole like a master course on one of the undisputed masterpieces of cinema.
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