The Bicycle Thief

NEW PRINT! Coming April 4
ESSENTIAL CINEMA
at Amherst Cinema
Sunday, April 4   2:00pm
Wednesday, April 7  7:00pm

This landmark Italian neorealist drama became one of the best known and most widely acclaimed European movies, including a special Academy Award as "most outstanding foreign film" seven years before that Oscar category existed. Written primarily by neorealist pioneer Cesare Zavattini and directed by Vittorio DeSica, also one of the movement's main forces, the movie featured all the hallmarks of the neorealist style: a simple story about the lives of ordinary people, outdoor shooting and lighting, non-actors mixed together with actors, and a focus on social problems in the aftermath of World War II. Lamberto Maggiorani plays Antonio, an unemployed man who finds a coveted job that requires a bicycle. When it is stolen on his first day of work, Antonio and his young son Bruno (Enzo Staiola) begin a frantic search, learning valuable lessons along the way.

Director Vittorio De Sica | 1949 | 93 mins | Italian with subtitles