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Bicycle Thieves

Ladri di biciclette

1948

Vittorio De Sica

Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell, Gino Saltamerenda ...

8.3

36,607

Drama After nearly two years of unemployment, Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) finally finds work posting bills. But he needs a bicycle to do the job. Unfortunately, he was forced to pawn his own bicycle long ago, so Antonio has to exchange his family's linen for his bicycle. But when the bike is stolen on his first day of work, he must comb the streets of Rome in search of the bike: his family's only means to survival.

	Media	Author	Review
		Don Druker Chicago Reader	"The most important neorealist film after Rossellini's Open City"
		Bosley Crowther The New York Times	"A brilliant and devastating film"
		Variety	"A pure exercise in directorial virtuosity"
		Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times	"It's even more involving now than it was then, a singular emotional juggernaut that has the kind of unrestrained power contemporary films can only dream about."
		Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"It is still alive and has strength and freshness (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"
		Sukhdev Sandhu Telegraph	"[It] is vital to the history of cinema."
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"It is as unbearable as any horror film (...) a brilliant, tactlessly real work of art (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Scott Tobias AV Club	"[It] remains pure and bracing, an indelible look at postwar Italy (...) 'Bicycle Thieves' gains much of its power from De Sica’s exceptional gifts as an image-maker"
		David Parkinson Radio Times	"This urban parable is the masterwork of the neorealist movement (...) De Sica achieves an ironic humanism that can't fail to touch the heart (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Clayton Dillard Slant	"The film is a landmark, and one of the greatest humanist films ever made (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		David Jenkins Time Out	"The stark location shooting and a yearning central performance from Lamberto Maggiorani (...) are beautifully measured, but the laissez-faire approach to metaphor jettisons detail in favour of broader commentary (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"

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