This one is about the movie: The Bicycle Thief by Vittorio De Sica.
Made in 1948, this movie has been my dad’s favorite and I have heard him mention this name in my childhood. So last week, when hunting for movie DVDS at the Bridgewater Library in NJ, I spotted it and clung on to it for dear life.
The movie is set in a decrepit and seedy side of Rome and it is clear from the first frames that the movie has poverty for its backdrop. The constant crowd of miserable visitors standing for their turn at the clairvoyant’s living room is sure sign of a populace that is desparately hoping to ward off a dark future . A struggling family that sells its bed sheets to raise money for a bicycle tells you how immensely important it is to the breadwinner. The man is distraught when it is stolen and, with his son in tow, they scour the mean streets of Rome searching for it – it represents the family's only vehicle for earning a living and so the ground of their happiness. They do everything they can, turn every stone, and do things that only desperate people do when life seems to have forgotten their existence. The little boy “Bruno” who dutifully trails his father somehow senses the dad's anguish and wants to do what he can and the play of destiny positions him to keep his father from harm’s way. Bruno actually lifts the movie to an “existential” masterpiece that it is.
I notice that the movie is on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLQuSJGzR3Y&feature=related
So waste no time – have a dekko!
Made in 1948, this movie has been my dad’s favorite and I have heard him mention this name in my childhood. So last week, when hunting for movie DVDS at the Bridgewater Library in NJ, I spotted it and clung on to it for dear life.
The movie is set in a decrepit and seedy side of Rome and it is clear from the first frames that the movie has poverty for its backdrop. The constant crowd of miserable visitors standing for their turn at the clairvoyant’s living room is sure sign of a populace that is desparately hoping to ward off a dark future . A struggling family that sells its bed sheets to raise money for a bicycle tells you how immensely important it is to the breadwinner. The man is distraught when it is stolen and, with his son in tow, they scour the mean streets of Rome searching for it – it represents the family's only vehicle for earning a living and so the ground of their happiness. They do everything they can, turn every stone, and do things that only desperate people do when life seems to have forgotten their existence. The little boy “Bruno” who dutifully trails his father somehow senses the dad's anguish and wants to do what he can and the play of destiny positions him to keep his father from harm’s way. Bruno actually lifts the movie to an “existential” masterpiece that it is.
I notice that the movie is on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLQuSJGzR3Y&feature=related
So waste no time – have a dekko!
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