Bicycle Thieves Essay Questions

What is Italian neorealism? How is Bicycle Thieves an example of neorealism, stylistically and thematically?

Bicycle Thieves is celebrated as a centerpiece of Italian neorealism, which emerged in the late 1940s both as a rejection of state-controlled popular 1930s “white telephone” films and a reaction to the penury and despair in post-war Italy. Filmmakers like De Sica, Roberto Rossellini, and Giuseppe De Santis took their cameras into the streets, relied exclusively on natural light, and hired nonprofessional actors to produce low-budgeted films about working-class life amidst the impoverished aftermath of World War II. Neorealism remains one of the most revered film movements in history for its technical innovations, gritty realism, compassionate point of view, and complex characters.

Stylistically, Bicycle Thieves serves as a quintessential neorealist film for its on-location shooting in Rome, use of natural light, episodic and organic storytelling, and casting of non-professional actors in principal roles. Thematically, Bicycle Thieves provides social and political commentary on post-war stress, poverty, religion, the police, and the complex moral issues confronting marginalized members of society, all the while depicting a heartwarming, delicate examination of family, love, and father-son relationships. We see Antonio and his family attempt to rebuild their lives with little success, and De Sica’s ability to evoke the aforementioned universal themes through Antonio’s personalized story encapsulates the dominant spirit of neorealism.

Why does Antonio try to steal someone else’s bicycle? Is this act justified? How does this affect our view of his character?

Because of rigid social circumstances which dehumanize poor individuals into petty criminals, we understand why Antonio attempts to steal the bicycle. This act nearly completes Antonio’s character arc. In Part 1, he is characterized as a family man with high moral standards. By Part 5, he abandons some of his cores values: he willingly visits the seer, threatens the old man, and fails to pay attention to Bruno. After being thoroughly humiliated by the crowd and seeing hundreds of taunting bike riders zoom past him, Antonio is more dejected than ever—and more willing to abandon his moral values. His attempted theft is a corrupt but understandable action, as it ensures the survival of his family. We cannot condemn Antonio’s actions when he simply is trying to survive amidst the cruel social and economic environment of postwar Italy.

Bicycle Thieves plays with notions of gender in interesting ways. Examine the character of Maria. Does she undermine or conform to gender norms?

Through the character of Maria, Bicycle Thieves both subverts and conforms to gender norms. Generally, masculinity is associated with domination, strength, and rationality, whereas femininity is associated with weakness, submission, and emotion. These normative conventions of masculinity and femininity often become scrambled in the film. At the beginning of the film, Maria at times takes on a more masculine role, as she appears to be more pragmatic, strong, and rational than Antonio. She is the one who comes up with the ingenious solution of selling their sheets to retrieve Antonio’s bike from the pawn shop, whereas Antonio, with his signature hysterical self-pity, is inclined to give up, insisting that he won’t be able to reattain his bike and accept the job. However, Maria also displays more traditional feminine traits, as seen in her emotional response to the theft of Antonio’s bicycle, which is viewed as weak by Antonio. This scene also marks Maria’s last scene in the film, illustrating her subservience and non-essential role in Antonio’s journey to find his bicycle. When Antonio receives the job and later sets off to find his bike, he reaffirms his dominance as the head of the household, which consigns Maria to a more traditionally feminine role.

For decades after its original release, Bicycle Thieves was known in the US as The Bicycle Thief. Why do you think the film is actually called Bicycle Thieves (plural) rather than The Bicycle Thief? Why is the plural form relevant?

The original title of the film, Bicycle Thieves, is plural for a reason—between the young thief and Antonio, there is more than a single bicycle thief in the film, which is the entire tragic point of the film. Throughout the film, De Sica often emphasizes plurality and suggests that the film is full of potential bicycle thieves in addition to the two thieves we see. This plurality is achieved through the characterization of Antonio, whose individual story represents an entire class of hopeless postwar Italians. We are constantly reminded of the unexceptional nature of Antonio’s experienced hardships. For instance, one of the most memorable shots in the film is the pan of the vertical tower stacked with pawned sheets, which are strikingly similar to the ones Maria and Antonio sell to reattain the bike. The pan reveals over twice as many shelves and bundles as had been visible from the ground in previous shots of the shop, and the sheer number of pawned sheets forces us to think of how many unseen Antonios have experienced the same struggle of sacrificing valuables to survive. Because we know that Antonio's anguish and turmoil is not unique, we can assume many sensible, morally decent individuals in Italy are bicycle thieves, forced to descend into criminality to survive—the film’s original title speaks to this devastating truth.

How does Bicycle Thieves address the popular film industry? Give examples to support your claim.

To reflect the tensions between mainstream cinemas and neorealist films, Bicycle Thieves makes two explicit allusions to the movie industry: the Rita Hayworth poster and the driver’s expressed distaste toward films: “Movies bore me. I just don’t like ‘em.” The Rita Hayworth poster provides an ironic contrast between the glamorous lifestyle of the Hollywood elite and the ubiquitous poverty in postwar Italy. The driver’s disdain for films illustrates how the film industry does not appeal to the interests and sensibilities of lower classes. Both comments speak to how the social concerns and compassion for the poor embodied in neorealism starkly contrasts with the disengaged, over-the-top studio artifice of the popular film industry.