Ajit Hari introduces our readers to some of the landmark films of World Cinema.

This is easily one of the best loved films of all time.

The story is simple enough. It is set in Rome in the year 1947, two years after the end of the Second World War. Our hero is Ricci, in his mid thirties, with a wife and two children, unemployed for the last two years.

The film begins with him getting a job, which requires him to possess a bicycle. Ricci’s cycle has been pawned so that this poor working class family could put food on the table. Ricci’s wife, Maria, pawns the family linen and gets the cycle released from the pawn shop.

Early next morning, Ricci and his ten year old son, Bruno, leave for work together. Bruno works as an attendant at a gas station. A couple of hours later, while Ricci is busy pasting the poster of a Hollywood film on a wall, he sees a young man grabbing his cycle and racing away into the peak hour traffic.
At the police station an overworked inspector tells him plainly that they really cannot help him. They have bigger things to do, and it is up to Ricci to search for the bike himself. He gathers a couple of other workers, and along with Bruno, searches the city for the stolen bicycle. But where do you look for a lone cycle in a huge city like Rome?

The very first place they go to is the flea market, where there are thousands of second-hand cycles. Furthermore, the cycles are dismantled, to be sold as individual parts. Soon Ricci’s friends lose heart and give up the search.

The realization dawns on Ricci that he is not going to recover his cycle, and he decides that he will steal one. He sees a lone cycle parked in a side street. He gives Bruno the ticket fare for the tram and asks him to go home. Bruno misses the tram and comes back to Ricci and is confronted with the spectacle of his father being chased as he tries to escape with the cycle. As the crowd starts beating up his father, the boy makes his way to centre. Seeing the little boy in tears, the owner of the cycle takes pity on Ricci, and tells the mob not to hand him over to the police.

The crowd disperses, and a devastated Ricci starts walking home, tears streaming down his face. He has been disgraced in front of his adoring son. As the desolate Ricci walks into the anonymous crowd, Bruno slips his little hand into his father’s hand. And there the film ends.

So what makes this film a masterpiece? Yes, it is a perfectly made film. But then, a well made film does not automatically make it a good film, far less a great film. So, what makes this film special?

The first indication of cinematic immortality is slipped in quite casually in the first five minutes of the film. The scene at the pawn shop. Ricci and Maria hand over their bundle of family linen. As they leave, Ricci looks back through the window, and we see a shot of their bundle being placed on a gargantuan shelf. With thousands of other bundles like their own.

The film is beginning to make its case. There are countless other families like the Riccis. There is a clue in the title of the film itself. It is Bicycle Thieves: in the plural. There is not one, but two thieves – the second one being Ricci himself. Was the man who stole Ricci’s bike any different from Ricci himself? When Ricci does manage to trace the man to his dwelling, he sees living quarters far more squalid than his own. The young man’s mother asks, “Instead of accusing my son why don’t you find him a job?”

At another point in the film, Ricci speaks to Bruno about all the small, little dreams he had tied up with this job. That is all that the Riccis of this world have always asked for. But our world cannot provide them with it. The film is about the Riccis of our world, searching for a means to make an honest living.

Bicycle Thieves is the most famous among the Italian Neorealist films made in Italy, between 1943 and 1952. These films mostly used non-professional actors and were shot on real locations, with small budgets. The actors in this film too were mostly ordinary people picked from the streets, who had never acted in their lives. Ricci was played by Lamberto Moggiorani, who was a factory worker. Enzo Staiola, who delivered an endearing performance as Bruno, had actually come with his mother to watch a scene being shot on the streets of Rome.

Along with Citizen Kane, this is the most written about film in the world, and one of the cultural icons of twentieth century. For all who like to see good films, but might be intimidated by the idea of watching art films, there is no better film than Bicycle Thieves to begin their discovery of the wonderful world of cinema as an art form.