Bicycle Thieves

(De Sica 1948)

The cycle of the script demonstrates how a thief is made. Our protagonist himself becomes one and therefore finds meaning in his pain: that is the point of the story.  But Ricci is not yet conscious of this knowledge. In the panic of the drowning boy and the subsequent knowledge of his son Bruno’s uninvolvement in the accident, Ricci is reminded of the truth. He gives his son a mozzarella feast in honour of the joy of life. But this is only the prelude to Ricci’s inner trial.  By embibing the suffering of men worse off than him, Ricci, without even knowing it, is being filled, like a full carafe of wine, with compassion.  His despair is only melodrama; the parable which entertains and distracts the audience (De Sica is close to Bresson).  The man’s shame, the boy’s pain, these are only the surface textures of da Sica’s moral tale.  It is Ricci’s soul being pressed against the razor’s edge of the struggle of his fellow man that is the true drama.  The bicycle does not represent success, it indicates a soul.

The friend with whom Ricci consults is perhaps what Ricci will become like in the future:  a man with the knowledge of how life really works; a philosopher who understands what makes and how it feels to be a thief and an old man and an artist.  He has transcended the rigmarole of labour to become creative;  he is an actor.  At one point in the basement space when he is rehearsing, he warns the socialists to leave his theatre.

One of the most satisfying moments in the film is when Ricci, having put up his first poster (of Rita Hayworth in Gilda) and his bicicletta having just been stolen, finishes off the pasting anyway.  He is a man who finishes the job. He understands the contract of labour.

The strangest moment in the film is when Bruno holds back in the Via Panico, after his father, Ricci, challenged by the policeman, has refused to press charges and is already walking off. Ricci comes around a corner and his son is still waiting behind, back in the alley, unseen. Is the boy insisting the father bring the man to justice ? Surely he isn’t sympathising with the men, as the boy himself has called the cop in the first place.

The first time I saw this film it seemed more sentimental.  Now I feel the deadly seriousness of it.  I don’t know whether Modena wins the soccer match at the end of the film, perhaps it is not important. After all, here it is art and music which seem to offer snatches of release for the Everyman.