Ebert's GREAT MOVIES, Part 12: "The Bicycle Thief"

I remember The Bicycle Thief as a classic, that I missed.
It sort of reminds me of The Red Balloon, which I did see.
What does it have in common?
They both need no dialogue, yet are perfectly understandable.
One is italian, the other french.
It's a good thing,too,b/c due to a brain injury,
I can't read the dialog fast enough,to see any picture
acted in a foreign language.And I hate dubbed-movies.

I saw Ladri di biciclette (Bycicle Thieves), for the second time a couple of months ago (more than 25 years had passed since the first time).
It is a film that will always resist the passage of time. Hence, a Classic.

In it's time, it must have also been quite a shock (I remember a scene in C'eravamo tanto amati -We Loved Each Other Very Much-), in which the reactions of the audience to De Sica's film are wildly diverse.
I like the subdued tragic feeling than underlies the whole drama and the unhappy, but not cruel ending of the film.
On the other hand, I believe some other Italian Neorrealist films have a better grip and story. Or it's only I liked them better.

I made a trivia question in IMDB and nobody could answer.
What soccer teams finished playing at the stadium as Antonio decides to steal the bike?

I am familiar with The Bicycle Thief by its excellent reputation. I have not, however, ever seen this "masterpiece." That doesn't mean I never will, so thank you for the thread.

How about the man of modest means who applies for a job as salesman only to be told that he must carry a Gucci brief case?

I guess the beauty of the modern age is that everyone, no matter how poor, has a credit card.

Kidding aside, Mrs. Hazlitt brought this film home a couple of years ago. I sat down, with reluctance, to watch it with her, and was really moved. By the film that is; although, Mrs. Hazlitt sometimes gets me moving, say, like when she thinks my desk needs straightening up. Don't be thrown off track here, I may not be in the mood for profundities just at this moment, but that does not mean I did not find "The Bicycle Thief" to be profound. It was.

There are a lot of other equally fine or finer neorealist movies like SHOESHINE, which is also heartbreaking. BICYCLE THIEF is such a simple story that is practically a parable. Maybe that is the reason that it still "works" after all these years.