Italian neorealism Video Lecture

the following content is provided under
a Creative Commons license your support
will help MIT OpenCourseWare continue to
offer high quality educational resources
for free
to make a donation or to view additional
materials from hundreds of MIT courses
visit MIT opencourseware at ocw.mit.edu
good evening people we continue our
discussion of neo-realism by looking
closely tonight at one classic instance
of the neo-realist movement the single
most famous film from that from that
school Bicycle Thieves before we before
I turn to talking a bit about aspects of
Bicycle Thieves itself which I hope will
frame your viewing in a way that will
help you get a lot out and get a lot out
of the first viewing of the film I want
to say a few words about vittorio de
sica himself i mentioned this afternoon
that the neo-realist movement although
it was immensely influential and
continues to be influential in fact on
realist filmmakers and on documentarians
and it was especially in its in its
earliest phases hailed globally as a
very remarkable movement it incited
criticism almost from the beginning
inside Italy and I suggested this
afternoon that some complaints against
the movie essentially came from
conservative forces in the society that
felt that the portrait of decay and
breakdown and dislocation that was at
the center of neo-realist films they
after all they were about the
contemporary world and about the the the
the broken universe that we had broken
planet that were at least the broken
Europe that we encountered after the war
there were many conservatives who fell
in in Italy who felt that it promulgated
a bad image for the society that it made
investment more difficult than it that
it was a kind of downer and this
criticism was very powerful but what
really undermined the movement in terms
of getting financing why the reason that
the movement sort of ended after about
the time Umberto D the last of the truly
neo-realist films that De Sica made was
produced in 1952 the its life was you
know very very brief that many people
would say that was the end of
neo-realism although there are some
films that come after that
that have neo-realist dimensions and
elements in them including some by
Fellini still the idea that the movement
had a very short life despite its
immense influence is an accurate one but
what I had left out this afternoon is an
important qualification or addition
which is that the films also incited
criticism from the left you would think
that that's when you see Bicycle Thieves
you'll see why that might be a
surprising fact because the sympathies
of the film are so totally on the side
of the of the underprivileged and the
under classes of the culture that it's
it's difficult from our contemporary
vantage point to see what would have
offended leftist but there were there
was a very vigorous and theoretically
sophisticated communist movement in
Italy in this period as there continues
to be today in some degree and and many
people on the Left especially communists
but other but socialists as well also
complained about neo-realist films and
in particular about the Seekers films
because they come because their
complaint was not that the difficulties
of the world were exposed they were
perfectly happy with that but they were
angry that there wasn't a program for
renovation what they were really angry
about was that there wasn't a Marxist or
a socialist program built into the films
and it's always struck me as very
revealing an interesting fact about the
movement that it couldn't satisfy either
left or right even though these films
are among the most powerful and
compassionate films about the lives of
ordinary of not just ordinary people
would have people without power of
people without control over their lives
that have ever been made so it's it's
it's a curious fact and it bothered to
Sica all his life that that he he seemed
unable to please either side in that
political argument and and at one point
in in an interview he said something
that I if I can find my notes I'd like
to quote to you he said in response to
the to it to a question that asked him
why do you think the Socialists and the
Communists were some at least some
socialists
Sabbatini was a socialist so he
collaborated deeply where they loved to
seek and collaborated with him on his
most important film so I don't mean that
all socialists thought ill of
neo-realism they did not but some did
and certainly people on the far left
definitely didn't and here was the
Seekers response to why he said he
expressed disappointment about this but
his response really in a way as a
critique of of the programmatic demands
that these that these people were making
on his films he said my films are a
struggle against the absence of human
solidarity and you should think about
this quotation as you're watching
tonight's film because they're as you'll
see in the film the official
institutions of the society seem to have
broken down or at least to have been to
have become not effective there there
there there there
over bird needs there it was somewhat
indifferent it's mostly that they're
overburdened that the problems of the
society are too great for the
institutional structures that are in
place to handle it the problems but in
any case you as you're watching the film
I think you'll notice not only the
clearly this breakdown of institutions
aver that we might expect to be helpful
to Ricci in his quest but what we will
also discover is that there are other
forms of solidarity that emerge in the
film one of them is the Solidarity of
husband and wife
another is the Solidarity very much
tested in the film it's the great
central theme of the film the Solidarity
of father and son and then there is also
the Solidarity of what we might call
neighbors or neighborhoods and you'll
see how that element works toward the
end of the film and it's remarkable and
surprising conclusion now here's the
quotation my films are a struggle
against the absence of human solidarity
against the indifference of society
towards suffering they are a word in
favor of the poor and the unhappy and
one reason I like the statement is it's
so in a certain sense unsystematic it
showed it's it they seemed to me to be
the words of an artist not a political
pamphleteer and they partly explain the
richness the resident resonance what
I've been calling the multiplicity of
Bicycle Thieves
there's a moment in bicycle thieves
about which Andre bazaar has written
very beautifully the same critic that
smokes that that was a champion of
French poetic realism and of Jean Renoir
of course becomes one of the great
champions of Italian Neorealism he can
see that that that the Italian form of
realism is an extension and elaboration
and in some ways a deepening of the
implications of poetic realism and he
and he he's written brilliantly about
the neo-realist and especially about
about de sica and there's one place in
the film that he particularly focuses on
in one of his essays it's a it's a
moment I have to give away a small part
of the plot in order to explain this but
it really won't trouble you because the
the plot engine gets going so early in
the film that it's hardly a surprise in
fact you really know what's going to
happen almost from the opening dialogue
in the film where people are arguing
about who has bicycles and who does not
the the film is organized in a very
elegant relatively simple way it covers
essentially three days of time the first
day is the day that in which Ricci gets
the the Commission for the job and then
go then goes with his wife to get his
bicycle out of hock and you'll see that
they have to go through certain kinds of
tricks to find the money for for to do
this and then once he has this bicycle
he goes to work and on his first day of
work guess what happens someone guess
who hasn't seen the film what do you
think might get stolen okay
right it's bicycle is stolen on the
first day of work okay
now the fact is you're really not
surprised when it happens because almost
from that first scene you're aware that
bicycles are this incredibly precious
object in the world and yet also
incredibly common and that's part of why
it's such a resonant symbol in them in
the film but the at the center of the
film the most fundamental and and most
memorable parts of the film involved
what I'll call sort of the third segment
I don't know that the segment's are
actually
in proportion in terms of time I think
the third is the longer one but the
third sequence is the Odyssey or the
quest in which Ricci and his young son
embark on in order to recover his
bicycle so he spends the whole so I
think he gets his job gets his bike
starts his job on Friday has his bike
stolen on Friday or maybe it's on
Saturday but in any case he he then he
then gets his bike stolen he then he
then asks for help from various sources
and the following day he spends the
entire day walking through the city of
Rome looking for the thief trying to
find his bike he actually finds the
thief as you'll see in the grand climax
of the film although the thief turns out
to be as as miserable and and and as
miserable and a person and as and at
least as much without prospects as poor
Ricci himself and something very
interesting happens in that moment in
the film because your sympathies shift
in some way to the to the thief in an
odd way and you watched as his
neighborhood gathers around the thief to
protect him in certain respects so the
so the heart of the film is this search
that the father and the son go on
through the third day of the of the of
the plot looking looking for the bicycle
and as the day wears on the father the
father becomes more and more nervous
more and more uneasy more and more
filled with anxiety the bike seems to
him the solution to all difficulties and
sometimes the son slows him down and
there and there are scenes in which the
father becomes an annoyed or angry with
the son getting a bit of head of myself
so I I won't repeat this again but I'll
come back to these matters of the theme
of fathers and sons in any case there's
a moment in this Odyssey where the
father and the son are engaged in this
search for the bicycle when it's just
after I think it's exactly at a moment
when there's a gigantic downpour they're
caught in a terrible rainstorm and I
think in fact the rainstorm may have
caused this the boy has to pee very
badly and so he tweeted me and he
interrupts the quest to go and pee I
mean he has to be you have to go you
have to go but the father so upset that
the boy has slowed him down that he's
and it's a tips like you get a sense
that it's maybe the first moment that
that this man has ever struck his son
and it's it's a tremendously fraught
moment and and this is how Beth Ann
talks about it and this is why I
mentioned this moment now it's a way of
illustrating this principle of texture
or openness to experience that's part of
the seekers vision of the world he is a
socially conscious director but he's not
a programmatic or a or a political
apprec director so Barzan focuses on
that moment I've just described you and
he says the boy needs to pee a downpour
interrupts the chase then he says quote
the events are not necessarily signs of
something of a truth of which we are to
be convinced they all carry their own
weight the rain the need to pee the
father's anger right they all carry
their own weight they're complete
uniqueness they all have Beth Ann says
so finally they all have that ambiguity
that characterizes in effect when a film
is able to capture that ambiguity that
characterizes any fact it's a work of
art right it can't be program at if it
does that and in fact the moment I'm
describing is is really in some sense a
version of what I've been calling the
neo-realist counterplot what constantly
happens in good neo-realist films and
what happens again and again in the
Bicycle Thief is that the ongoing quest
for the bicycle is retarded or
interrupted by various kinds of accident
disturbance a strange encounter so that
the so that the search for the bicycle
becomes something much larger than that
and every particular moment in the film
has as bizarre says its own uniqueness
its own its you don't feel that anything
is in the film to further the plot or to
illuminate the character or to tell you
something about what political attitudes
you should have although by the time
you're finished with the film you do
have very coherent sense of how the
society is breaking down of what of how
people are sustaining themselves of how
about how difficult life is in post-war
Italy you're away
all of these things and and and and
aware of them were the concreteness and
a clarity that you wouldn't have if you
read an abstract essay you've seen them
embodied in a totally believable fiction
but what gives the fiction its authority
what gives it its power is precisely
that you don't feel you're watching a
sermon you don't feel you're watching
something in which in which some
political moralist is beating you over
the head and telling you oh you better
love this poor guy you but and in fact
as the film goes on one of the things
you discover is that they are very there
are nasty or bad sides to poor Ricci we
understand that he's driven by economic
anxiety that's very deep in it partly
and certainly mitigates his his behavior
but he behaves crudely and cruelly to
his son never intending to and then of
course there are moments when he
recovers and tries to tries to make up
with his son I'll come back to this in a
moment
so this passage from bezu also calls
attention then to what I think of as a
signal feature in these films the pet
and especially in the Bicycle Thief that
power that that any moment in the film
has to express a kind of complete
uniqueness the ambiguity that
characterizes reality itself well what
I'd like to briefly do is give you a
partial account a modest account of the
Seekers own career and then say some
things about the bicycle about Bicycle
Thieves de sica was a stage actor he
gave regimental performances when he
served in the Army in the First World
War
became a stagehand right after the war
and an actor in 1923 he joined a theatre
company in 1925 a touring company and he
became a tremendous success in a series
of performances he would in 1927 he
appeared on stage in Rome in something
called the zabun reviews and I think it
involves singing and dancing and this
was an unbelievable success and turned
him into a kind of matinee idol or at
least a theater icon he he made his
first film in that same year in 1922 as
an actor and his first
success came he continued to act in
films intermittently for the next decade
but he didn't become a recognizably
serious film actor until his first major
success in 1932 and then he and then for
10 years he's a kind of matinee idol on
in Italian movies he made over 40 films
in the period between it as an actor
between 1932 and 1942 but very handsome
man as some of you may know if you've
seen him and capable of great subtlety
as an actor this may help to explain why
he was such a great director of
non-professional actors because he knew
intuitively I think how to bring out a
performance from it from it from someone
who was not trained in in performing in
acting he begins to direct in 1940 and
makes a series of interesting but
forgettable films I suppose his first
really significant film from one angle
anyway if are especially if we're
interested in the development of
neo-realism is a film he makes in 1942
co-screenwriter cesare zavattini it's
entitled the children are watching us
and it's it's a it's I've seen the film
it's it's not a great film but it's an
interesting film and there are some
remarkable moments in it the title tells
you something about the neo-realist
commitment to focus on the
underprivileged and the disempowered in
society the many neo-realist films focus
directly on children and the children
are watching us is one such film and it
almost announces the the idea that
children are among the victims of
society because they are subjected not
only to all the political and social
authorities of the society but also to
the arbitrary Authority of their own
parents and their own and their own
immediate family environment so so the
children are watching us announces this
interest in the disenfranchised and
especially in children and it's a it's a
film about the break
of a middle-class marriage mostly told
through the eyes of the children so they
are sort of certain things certain
behaviors on the part of the adults are
never fully explained because your
witness and experience the film through
the not just the eyes but through the
perceptions the understanding the
sensibility of children who are somewhat
confused about what they're seeing the
the film that established him as an
international figure and established
neo-realism as an international movement
was one that De Sica and zavattini
collaborated on in 1946 and it was
entitled shoeshine and I sometimes have
been tempted to show shoeshine in this
course even though it's a much less
perfect film than Bicycle Thieves
because in its own way it's so powerful
and moving one of the most interesting
things about neo realism apart from the
fact that it was so short-lived is how
relevant the film still feel today if
you watch shoeshine or another of the
films that I that I've listed here
Umberto D which is about the problems of
people who have gone into rid of all of
the old people of our retired pensioners
and the problems they face when there is
horrific inflation the seekin dedicated
that film to his father and it's about
an old man who's very proud he used to
be he dresses very well but he's
tremendously isolated he's terribly poor
he's almost reduced to begging in the
course of the film and there's even a
moment near the end of the film where he
contemplates and then pulls back from
suicide
so that but but watching that film today
it feels much less dated than some films
that are much later than that were
produced 10 15 20 25 years after it
because the theme is so relevant I mean
because we know that in society today
there are so many old in all Western
societies but especially in the United
States there are pensioners who can't
make ends ends meet and the same thing
is true I think in some degree of the
role of the of the fate of children in
modern society so shoeshine although it
has a very melodramatic
and violent ending it's a immensely
powerful film essentially it's a story
about two boys to Roman street urchins
who are taken advantage of in some sense
by by by their own relatives who are
trafficking in black-market goods it's
just the same it's said in the same
moment at the end of the war in fact the
film opens with these these these
urchins trying to make a living as
shoeshine boys that's why that's where
the title comes from and the shoeshine
boys are wandering the streets of Rome
going up to American soldiers who are
dominating the streets the worst it's
still an occupied City asking soldiers
if they want shoeshines
and and the this the the children are
unbelievable victims they're very close
friends they end up buying a racehorse a
broken-down old racehorse that that
can't race anymore and they stable at
some place and it's a there they're very
excited about about their about their
possession of this horse and there's
some early scenes in which you see them
riding on the horse with tremendous joy
and so forth but of course this is the
the dawn before the miserable night
because what then happens is the kids
are taken advantage of by one of their
but but by a close relative they're
involved in black market activities the
men the the adults use the children
because they know that the children are
less vulnerable and they would be if
they're caught the children are --court
caught they're sent to reform school and
most of the film takes place in the
reform school you see these two
bright-eyed beautiful young children
know maybe ten years old
who are the fastest and closest of
friends when they go into jail slowly
breaking down you see their humanity
being beaten out of them by the
conditions in the reforms in the in them
in the children's prison it's a it it's
a terrible disturbing film in part
because you could you can you you can
see that the people who are running the
prison actually mean well they're not
vicious evil people who want to harm
children they just can they the sir the
system seems designed simply to cause
more harm than good and to do and to
destroy the vitality and optimist
and when I say the film ends
melodramatically one one child strikes
out at his erstwhile best friend and
knocks him down a bank and he dies
there's an effect accidentally murders
is a person who had been his dearest
friend I think it's a failure in the
film I think that you didn't need the
murder for the meanings of the film to
be available I think that the seeker
learned something from that and when you
watch the ending of the Bicycle Thief
one of the things I hope you'll ask
yourself is why is it so apparently
undramatic and why does that undramatic
ending in the end seem so profound so
moving so meaningful it's as if it's as
if the secant sort of learned his lesson
it's as if he drove his point home too
heavily at the end of shoeshine and he
realized that to have a truly organic
text that did what Beth Ann wants text
to do reflect the unique the unique and
the duty of every of every experience
the ending of the bicycle of Bicycle
Thieves does that much more effectively
as I hope you'll watch for when you when
you're watching the film so shoe shot
but shoe shine was it what made a
tremendous impact and it won the the
first of four Academy Awards that the
seeker won as Best Director for that
this was for the best foreign film of
the year in 1946 and it put neo-realism
on the map and then two years later
Sabatini and and De Sica followed with
what I suppose we could call their
masterpiece Bicycle Thieves I want to
say this is not a complete and remotely
complete list of to seek his films I've
just listed some highlights here because
I want to give you a sense of his work
I've mentioned Umberto D already the
last neo-realist film according to many
people and a very moving one about her
about an old pensioner the film two
women starts to feel RN one of the one
of the great sort of pulchritudinous
italian movie stars of the 50s and 60s
and it got a lot of attention and there
and there were other interesting many
other interesting films that he made but
one of his great triumphs was the very
last film he made and that's why I want
to mention
Sabbatini return to do an uncredited
coast screenplay work to do uncredited
screenplay work on finzi-continis and
you can feel that Sabatini's hand in
many moments in the in the film it's an
adaptation of a novel and of course as
some of you may know it's really a
holocaust film it's about the build-up
to the Holocaust and the finzi-continis
are very wealthy Italian Jews the story
is about a poor a young Jewish scholar
who is because of the anti-jewish laws
that are developing in in fascist Italy
is barred from using the public library
and he's a very gifted young scholar
he's in his early 20s
so he gets per me so he finds out that
this very wealthy aristocratic family
also Jewish the finzi-continis have a
magnificent library in the
finzi-continis opened their library to
him since he's barred from going to
public life and of course what happens
is you might you might guess this too
it's a wonderful novel although the film
is even more beautiful I think he falls
in love with the finzi-continis daughter
right so it's a it's a class issue you
know the poor boy rich girl and the film
the film that so the foreground of the
film is this cross class romance but in
the background of the film all the it's
something like cabaret but not as
dramatic not as overt because what's
going on in the background of the film
is that is the growth of fascism and the
film ends with many of the characters
we've gotten to know very well both
young and old all of them Jews with some
very aristocratic and some at the bottom
of the social hierarchy all being herded
together being ready to be shipped off
to the camps you don't actually go the
final scenes of the film have them in
the railroad station being being
prepared for their for their final
journey and the film has a the film is
also full of comedy just as the some of
the passages that I show you in Clips
this afternoon mix comedy with social
with with socially serious themes this
is even truer of the garden of the
finzi-continis so one of the reasons I
like the film so much is that it's a
return
to the energies and the moral passion
that had marked de seekers earlier
career and I think that my own feeling
is the finzi-continis fnz continues is
one of the great European films it's it
certainly would be on my list of the
best 15 or 20 European films of the
sound era and III think I think many of
you would find it very instructive and
moving but I think especially so after
you saw some of the true neo-realist
films the early neo-realist films it one
can't really call the garden of the
finzi-continis neo-realist film although
it has many elements in common with
those earlier texts so De Sica was a
remarkable man a significant actor a
great director he directed over 25 felt
he directed 25 films in his career won
four Oscars for Best Foreign Film he
acted in more than a hundred and fifty
films mostly light comic social manners
kind of roles but there's one exception
I perhaps should mention playing in a
film for his friend Roberto Rossellini
in 1959 Rossellini's greatest film a
film called general della Rovere De Sica
played the lead he plays the general and
it's it's probably his most memorable
performance and it's very very subtle
and good film about political
ambiguities and conflicts of loyalty
it's a and human frailty human
inadequacy you know in a way that's
characteristic of the best neo-realist
work now those are all films I recommend
and urge you to consider watching in
your in your leisure time let me say a
few words now in about about Bicycle
Thieves
and I've already implied or actually
said a part of my of what I want to say
so I think I can be briefer than I had
originally planned let's say so let me
remind you again about the structure I
mentioned too that the structure of the
film is elegantly simple that the amount
of time that passes is very compressed
and that's helpful because
you you you you've the the time
compression makes you aware of the
urgency of the quest that the father and
the son are engaged on when they certain
when when they're searching for the
bicycle so one way and and as the story
unfolds a number of things begin to
happen the quest for the bicycle becomes
a kind of Odyssey in which in which
several things happen one is the film
takes you on an exploration of Rome you
actually it's like one of the great city
films it visits the city it explores the
city you see different different it's
not just that you see police stations
and religious institutions and the
catacombs underneath the city where the
unions meet and where reach he first
goes to get help from his union from
union members who promised him that
they'll find his bike very easily and
they give him a plan and he's very
excited then the next morning when they
follow the instructions of the union
boss doesn't help so the unions are
breaking down as well as the church as
well as certain kinds of welfare
organizations from the state and so on
so one thing the film becomes then is a
kind of travelogue a kind of exploration
of the city the city's geography as well
as the city's makeup in some way you go
into different neighborhoods and you
hear I think Italians can pick up
different different neighborhoods speech
patterns in the film at least I've been
told this by native by native Italians
so it's a kind of travelogue in one
sense it's it explores this this play
and part of the exploration of course
part part of the exploration involves
certain ancillary or or or or or other
themes that are not then our that are
organically linked to the to the story
of looking at going through the city
looking for the bicycle and one of these
one of these of course is is what we
might call the social themes of the film
because as the the protagonists make
their way through the city searching for
the bicycle one we what you encounter
are little vignettes that tell you
something about the social hierarchies
of the society about the efficacy or in
efficacy of its institutions
right I won't go into great detail here
I want to I hope you'll draw your own
conclusions and name some of the name
some of the specific examples that
reinforce this general idea but I do
want to mention at least one moment in
this in this in this Odyssey one of the
most dramatic and and disturbingly comic
moments in the film occurs when Ricci
and his son actually think they've seen
the thief they don't think they
recognize him and they follow him and
they get to a century a mission where
relatively well-off self-satisfied
Christians are serving meals to the
indigent and the poor right oh and Rishi
gets into this institution not but not
because he sort of wants the meal or
because he needs the religious uplift
but because he's chasing his thief right
and he finds once he's in there that he
can't get out
it turns out that in this institution
that not only do they do the the poor
have to pay for their meal by by
agreeing to all kinds of religious
behaviors prayers and other kinds of
things but they're also locked into the
building they're not allowed to they're
not allowed to leave at least until they
finish eating maybe they're not allowed
to leave until they can be checked to
make sure they're not stealing the soup
bowls but in any case it's a it's a it's
a very interesting moment because you
can see that even the people who intend
to do well in the society often do more
harm than good and and of course the
implication is that the traditional
religious institutions and traditional
religious arrangements are not
sufficient to take care of or to borrow
or or adequately to respect the the
difficulties of the poor and that's just
one such moment them in there there are
a number of there are a number of others
and then in fact there is one other
moment I should mention as a kind of
contrast I've said that we see many
instances in which we understand that
the larger institutions of society like
the police or the religious system or
the Union system are breaking down are
not really helping people but i but I've
also said that there are some other sort
of unofficial and non institutionalized
sources of solidarity uncomfort that
emerge in the course of the
and I hope you'll watch for them and and
and think about what they're what what
their significance is but there's one
but but but but there's one moment in
which we might say which complicates
this argument because we can see the
social institution of the society social
institutions of sign not actually
functioning effectively but at least
showing some compassion and it's an
astonishingly vivid meaningful moment in
the film another one of these moments so
full of multiplicity that the meanings
are are so deeply embedded in in what
you dramatically see that sometimes you
don't even step back to generalize on
the meaning of what you've seen and this
is a scene very early in the film where
reach he actually goes to retrieve his
bicycle and his wife has figured out a
way basically what she figures out is
will sell they have a little bit of a
they sell her dowry she has a couple of
fancy silk sheets and they take them to
the hock shop and they and they pawn the
sheets in order to get enough money to
get the bicycle out of hock right means
they're gonna be sleeping on mattresses
but so what this is more important right
and so and you see Ricci and his wife go
to the pawn shop which is clearly it's
clearly run by the state it's not like a
private porn book it's obviously a city
institution of some kind and and they
bring them linen up to the guy and and
he looks at them and he says okay I'll
give you this much money and they need a
little bit more because they need more
to get the bike out of hock so they they
ask him for more money and he looks at
he says ah it's not really worth it okay
and he gives them and it's an act of
generosity on his part because he didn't
have to do it he gives them just enough
money for this stuff so that they could
get his bike out of hock and then
completely silent you see him pick this
material up this this pawned bedding
this pawned linen and he turns around I
think he does and he may give it to
another character I haven't looked at
this scene in a year or two so I don't
remember these but you will recognize
the scene I think it's the same man who
does it or he may give it to someone
else well the material the the three or
four sheets that are involved are taken
by someone he walked in the back of a
room and he begins to climb a ladder and
as he climbs you realized that what he's
climbing up is a he's he's climbing a
ladder which is a
leaning against a series of shelves that
seem to go on endlessly they seem to be
in an auditorium the size of the city of
Pittsburgh and they go up endlessly high
and every single shelf every single inch
of space on the shelf is filled with
bedding as if the entire city of Rome
has pawned its bedding as if everybody
in Rome is sleeping on mattresses now
the film never makes a comment about
this no one in the film says anything
about it but it's an unbelievably
resonant and rich moment and it's and
it's also it it it does further the sort
of social themes of the film but it
occurs in a moment in which you also see
the pawnbroker
showing a moment of compassion and
generosity and if he did not show that
generosity they wouldn't have been able
to get the bicycle so it's a it's a
complicated moment it does mean if all
this linen has been pawned there's some
question about whether or not the city
services are doing much good for anybody
than the city's in obvious trouble if
nobody has any bendlin in any longer the
implication is this is an unbelievably
impoverished and and and damaged
environment but it's done in such a
quiet and there's even some it's done in
such a quiet way there's even something
almost comic about the sense you have of
the endless number of these things even
the idea that you have to distinguish
one from the other seems from our
vantage point a bit silly even though
each one has a ticket on it each one
belongs to an individual family so watch
for that moment it has some of that
ambiguity that we've been that that
peasant talks about um so the structure
of the film is organic in the sense that
nothing that happens in the film doesn't
seem to arise naturally
out of the needs of the characters we
have to find our new bite we have to
find our bike and in the course of their
travels other things happen the boy has
to pee they get hungry they have to eat
or sometimes it rains they have to get
out of the rain
right and that's part that becomes part
of the ongoing sort of organic
development of the of the story you
never once feel I think in this film
that that any event has been imposed
from the outside every event seems to
arise naturally out of the circumstances
and nature of the characters
and that's why I call it organic it's a
deeply or it's a it's a deeply or
organic way of thinking about the
material but it's organic in another way
too of course because it's deeply
coherent when you finally finish the
film when you step back you say okay yes
the film slowed down here and yes the
film seemed to generate what Thorburn
calls a counter plot here nonetheless
the taken as a whole there's a profound
moral and and thematic coherence in this
organically fluid movie so the structure
of the film is part of its essence and
although I haven't put this on the
outline because we've talked about this
so often already pay attention to the
ren juarez type camera behavior i mean
this the film's visual style is like
Jean Renoir's there's a kind of there's
a kind of elegant restlessness to the
camera that's that that's that that's
very much a part of what the film of
what the film achieves so I in talking
about the social themes all I meant to
call your attention to was the extent to
which in a variety of ways the film
calls attention to the miserably
endangered circumstances of ordinary
people in this broken-down war-torn
environment and it also looks to those
or seems to find without even looking to
those soar dramatize will reveal those
sources of support and sustenance that
get us through bad times and as you're
watching the ending of the film ask
yourself what these things mean I mean
what what it means that the that whether
I won't I won't actually tell you
whether he recovers the bike or not let
you see that for yourselves but ask
yourself whether or not he recovers the
bike would it have made any difference
does it matter what given what the film
is finally saying to us in those final
in those final images well character
this is one of the great films about
character I think and especially about
about the relation between the father
and the son they're at the very center
of the film I've already said in a way
that this Odyssey that they go on is a
travelogue it teaches us about the
geography and social circumstances and
social arrangements and class system and
and institutional systems of Rome it
does that but it also it's also an
odyssey in which
the father and the son get to know each
other in the in a deeper and in many
ways much more disturbing way than has
ever happened to them before the most
poignant and terrible thing about this
film in fact is that the Odyssey I've
been describing through Rome with his
son by Ricci
is also an initiation story a story
about growing up but what happens to
Ricci son in this film doesn't happen to
most young boys until they're much older
and it happens gradually not all at once
but what reaches son discovers in the
course of this day are his father's
flaws he discovers things about his
father that no boy really wants to know
even if he's 67 years old like your
professor and he discovers these things
about he discovers these things about
his father in the most stressful
circumstances his father is violent
toward him his father is indifferent
toward him then there are moments when
after his father feels terrible anxiety
and grief over the way he's treated
where his father tries to make up with
him and these and you can see the boy
not wanting to let him do it it's
unbelievably rich and I don't think
anyone who pays attention to this will
fail to recognize the interactions
between the father and son as
unbelievably true marvelously accurate
to the way in which loving parents and
loving children often interact with each
other them because they have many
moments where they're really not happy
with each other at all what the boy
discovers about his father are some
things that no child ever wants to know
about his father not just that he's
flawed but that he's deeply deeply
flawed that he's that he's capable of
really terrible behavior and the boy is
it and something then happens in this
Odyssey it's one of the subtlest things
about the film the basic relations
between fathers and sons are reversed
and we find that the son this little
child is twice in the film in the
condition of in the position of having
to rescue his father I'm simplifying
certain things because I don't want to
give away the plot but you'll see how
this works out in the film I mean there
are two moments in the film in which
Ricci's fate would be far more dire than
it is because of his son's presence his
son in a sense
his savior so that there but fathers are
supposed to protect their sons not the
reverse and part of the meaning of this
adventure is that Ricci has been reduced
to such a miserable level that he even
has to rely on his sons help in order to
get you know in order to get by this and
both of them father and son
experienced this reversal so it's a it's
a psychologically traumatic and deeply
moving experience although don't
misunderstand I'm not suggesting that
the child doesn't come to terms with
what he does come to terms with what he
learns I think it's quite remarkable I
mean I I mean I would have had trouble
with what that boy comes to terms with
as an adult and he does it as a child
but I think of course it's also
believable as you'll see so the so the
film the film is profound and serious
about the social circumstances of
post-war Italy it's profound and serious
about the indifference of certain kinds
of institutional arrangements to the to
the real miseries of human experience
and it is a powerful and deep
exploration of human character and
especially centrally the relation
between Ricci and his son the relation
between father's and becomes a kind of
one of the great parables of the
relations between adults and children
between father it's one of the great
father and son stories of of all time
let me conclude by saying a couple of
words about the title I mean there's
much more in the film I wish I could
talk about but you by this time in the
course if you can't get this stuff
yourself I haven't done my job I hope
all of you are watching films much more
attentively and carefully than you had
before I hope that your enjoyment has
been increased rather than decreased by
what you've learned in this course and
let the Bicycle Thief be a test because
in many ways it's not the kind of film
most of you guys would go out to watch
first of all it's only it's in black and
white
second it's whatever it is more than
fifty years old but I think you'll I
think you'll recognize that it that it
hasn't aged that that that the film is
as compelling now as it was when it was
maybe even more compelling now than when
it was made because some of the
political turmoil has disappeared
there's no longer there's no longer the
the taint of fascism hanging over
Italian
artistic productions as there were at
the end of the war there's a historical
sense of the importance of this movement
so maybe we can look at these at these
neo-realist films with a more objective
eye than than the original audiences
could in any case the title is an
interesting one when it was first
translated into English it was - and in
fact it's still widely known you might
have noticed a few slips of the tongue
on my part where I started to call it
the Bicycle Thief and the reason is it
still often called that and a wonder was
originally brought into the United
States and translated both in Great
Britain and in the United States it was
called The Bicycle Thief now the Italian
is in the plural it's lad V DBC collect
thieves of the bicycle would be the
literal translation right now the
question is why the plural and I think
you can imagine the answer just from
that opening sequence that I showed you
this afternoon can you what Wyatt why
would it be plural why would the title
be plural one of the reasons is from the
very opening sequence we see that
everybody that the first of that the
bicycle is a very ambiguous and
complicated symbol in the film
if symbol is a bad word because it's
such an actuality that it seems
pretentious to call it a symbol you see
hundreds of maybe thousands of bicycles
in the film that's part of what makes
reaches loss of the bicycle so poignant
you have the sense as he's walking
around the city that my god everybody
has a bicycle there are ten million
bicycles in this city poor Ricci can't
find one can't find his it seemed I mean
there's something there's there's
something horrific about the idea that's
an item so common could still for Ricci
be so precious as to constitute his
livelihood or a threat a threat against
his livelihood if he can't find the
bicycle and you can guess now on the
basis of what I've already said
one reason for why the title is plural
why as rich he's walking around looking
for his bicycle walking through a city
full of hundreds and thousands of
bicycles what might he think what might
you think if you needed the bicycle
desperately why not pinch one right why
not feet so one of the reasons that the
title is plural is that reach is one of
the thieves
right I mean oh I'm only suggesting that
he's a thief by sort of psychological
inclination he looks lovingly at fine as
you'll see the plot makes this even more
explicit I didn't want I don't want to
give him away the plot he actually I
will he actually does in a certain sense
become a thief but long before he
becomes a literal thief and actually
puts his hands on someone else's bicycle
you you and I even think that some
people in the audience may get the idea
before reach he does I mean you're
watching this guy walk so terrible
looking for look looking everyplace for
his bicycle and he's surrounded by
bicycles he's inundated by bicycles it's
after he recovers the bicycle before he
goes to work
his wife asks him to take him to a
special location she wants to thank
someone it turns out that that he and so
and they get on the bus she rides behind
him and he rides over on the bike and he
waits outside this place when his wife
goes up his wife is taking a long time
so he leans his bike against the wall
and he starts to go up the stairs and he
looks he sees that his bike is
vulnerable so he walks down he finds the
kidney gives them I think he gives the
kid a coin and tells the kid to guard
the bike and then he starts walking up
the stairs again this is very early in
the field and think how clever this is
and you're aware of how vulnerable the
bike is from that moment Longley this is
a day before it's stolen right and
you're you're aware of how precious it
is and as he ascends the stairs you
actually become afraid that his bicycle
might be stolen you'll begin so that one
of the reasons that the title is
ambiguous is I think in the end that the
title encompasses not just the thief who
steals reaches bike and not just Ricci
himself who contemplates becoming a
thief in his desperation but also the
audience which becomes complicit in
reaches impulse to criminality because
we ourselves thank God steal the goddamn
bike take the bike stop worrying about
get it get away there's a bike you can
take and I think anyone watching the
film has this feeling after a relatively
short time so that we're bicycle thieves
as well so part of the subtlety of the
time and you'll see as though as the
film works itself out I've already
implied this when they finally catch up
with the alleged with the thief the guy
they think is the thief he turns out to
be an even more miserable specimen than
poor Ricci he's an epileptic he
has these out of work he has to be
protected by his community his mother's
very protective of him there's some
modest minor possibility that he's
acting they's faking his his his his
mental problems and maybe faking
everything but I don't think so I mean
and you can judge yourself whether this
is it what is in a case the king when is
any case surely true is that is that the
neighborhood coalesces around him
because Ricci and his son are strangers
and are attacking someone from their
neighborhood right and and so so so when
it when this when this happens one of
the things that you one of the things
you feel is not just that that the thief
that Ricci was going going after
deserves some sympathy to you begin to
feel some sense that his difficulties
are not that you excuse his fevery
but you understand it in a in a deep and
generous way I think and that
complicates your sense of who thieves
are and what thieves are like and then
you've come to recognize that rich is a
potential thief and you care about rich
you see what a loving father he is what
a desperate how desperate he is to take
care of his family so you you you
sympathize with him and then you realize
if you've been thinking about it that of
course you've been coveting bicycles
yourself as if new as so the audience
and the real thief and Ricci the
would-be thief are all implicated
together as if what he's saying is that
our common humanity is what Bicycle
Thieves suggests and that's one of the
reasons that the title needs to be
plural because the film is not about a
single Bicycle Thief it's about the
Bicycle Thief in all of us enjoy the
film