374 Bicycle Thieves

[CSM126]

Bicycle Thieves II: The Quickening. Spoiler: the thieves are really aliens from Planet Zeist!

[Jack Phillips]

I actually overheard someone with an American accent

damned Canadians!

[manicsounds]

And I finally watched this today, a double bill with "The Tree Of Life" (Father/Son double feature, I guess). With the region-B Arrow out, I'm guessing that the Criterion upgrade shouldn't be too far behind.

[TMDaines]

They took their time with the DVD, didn't they? Would love to be proved wrong though as the Italian disc was clearly visually superior to the Arrow but doesn't have the same array of extras.

[puxzkkx]

I just saw this for the first time, and I can't say I liked it very much: de Sica does something very interesting by making a 'perseverance of the spirit' story with such an intensely self-involved asshole as a protagonist - the intent here seems to be offering Antonio's basic existence as the most important qualifier of our identification with his struggle. However I think the scope of his obnoxious manchildishness - his laziness in his first appearance on film, the way he roughs up his wife without thinking, his unrepentant harassment of a homeless man and an epileptic youth, his immediate instinct to cut in line (once in front of a crippled man!), his buying a nice meal before whining about money, the careless fraternity of his relationship with his son who falls over without reassurance, is hit, is nearly run over and, it is implied, nearly molested - swings the pendulum back from the social study to the personal, and makes it hard to either carry the metaphor of his plight over to an entire class or assume that stealing a bike is something he would resort to only after such an apparently violent internal conflict. I respect de Sica's resistance of 'nobility of the poor' tropes, but there is still an icky sentimentality in his insistence on such lacrimose scoring behind Maria and Antonio's rapturous discussion of wages (catering directly to wet-eyed middle-class audiences' sense of pity upon hearing someone describe such a meagre sum as if it were a fortune) or the camera's readiness to pick up 'incidental' moments of Enzo Staiola cuteness.

I think I prefer something like Miracle in Milan, where de Sica's warring impulses to cynicise sentimentality and to give it free rein are given an appropriate outlet in fantasy.

Just have a quick question regarding the subtitles. I saw a print of the film last night, and while the theater had the poster claiming it was a restored print for the 60th anniversary, it was fairly obvious the print was a much older. That said, there were good chunks of the film, though unimportant to the actual plot, where there were no subtitles at all. The one example I can think of right away is the scene where Antonio meets Baiocco during his rehearsal. While Antonio recounts what has happened to his bicycle, Baiocco is interrupted by the players on the stage and they exchange words. These aren't subtitled. There are other small scenes like that throughout the film, where I found this happening. Does the new Criterion DVD offer "expanded" subtitles? I know that it's common for not every line of dialogue to be subtitled, but it seemed with this film, it was a little more than usual.

This happened on the print I watched as well (on my computer), and every other subtitle I could find to download had the same problem.

[swo17]

I feel like you may have watched a different movie from me. Perhaps one of the sequels?

[zedz]

I just saw this for the first time, and I can't say I liked it very much: de Sica does something very interesting by making a 'perseverance of the spirit' story with such an intensely self-involved asshole as a protagonist - the intent here seems to be offering Antonio's basic existence as the most important qualifier of our identification with his struggle.

If you'd like to see that idea pushed even further (and the audience's natural sympathy treated with much more problematic ambiguity), you should see Kiarostami's The Traveller (on Criterion's Close-Up disc).

[knives]

I think it's more excusable with a kid though especially when it's more of him suffering from being a kid than just being an idiot. While it gets criticized for this attitude more I think Umberto D. is more successful in showing how even awful people are worthwhile on account of them being people.

[HerrSchreck]

My first time encountering this kind of a response to this film was when I showed it (I'm not kidding, she loves cinema... She just this past sunday wept at the end of CITY LIGHTS which I brought over) to my mother. . . and she left me gasping for air with her complete lack of sympathy for ( and in fact out right dislike for) the protagonist of the film. And this coming from a woman reared in the old East Harlem, and completely in sync via her childhood with the pain of poverty..

Really makes one wonder how much of what we take from a film is actually IN thefilm, and how much was injected into the narrative by us.

Beauty of art... Different things to different people... Etc etc mutatis mutandis id est yadda yadda....

[Michael Kerpan]

Maybe your mother _knew_ folks not too different from the protagonist...

[HerrSchreck]

Maybe your mother _knew_ folks not too different from the protagonist...

That's where my mind headed at the time in fact, and I couldnt help thinking that he might have reminded of my grandfather, an aspiring tenor who never quite made it (met my grammy when she got backstage to meet him), left the family hungry when he went to war and during bleak blank stretches back home. I couldn't figure anything else that could color her reception of the character in such an unconventional way.

Anyhow, 'nuff bout me mummy..... Heading home w t the Milestone BOWERY, CC ANATOMY OF A MURDER, and a fresh copy of some of my fave schlocko 50's of all time MISSLE TO THE MOON ( wore my old one literally out... This edition has an optional colorized track of all things furchrissakes).

"Look out, the rock men!"

"My Leee-do........."

Joy!

[zedz]

Maybe your mother _knew_ folks not too different from the protagonist...

That's where my mind headed at the time in fact, and I couldnt help thinking that he might have reminded of my grandfather, an aspiring tenor who never quite made it (met my grammy when she got backstage to meet him), left the family hungry when he went to war and during bleak blank stretches back home. I couldn't figure anything else that could color her reception of the character in such an unconventional way.

I have to admit that I have an incredibly low threshold for characters who make really stupid decisions for the convenience of the drama, but whom we're still supposed to feel sorry for (this is my pet peeve with a number of Ken Loach films, for instance) - but that's never even occurred to me in relation to Bicycle Thieves, since I think the film very carefully closes off all the exits and backs the protagonist into his particular corner.

[Dave]

Hello, I recently became obsessed with tracking down the filming locations of Bicycle Thieves in Rome. I have created a website that provides a map plus a lot of 'then and now' comparisons. You might find it mildly interesting. Any additions or corrections would be greatly appreciated.

Enjoy!

[MongooseCmr]

That's really impressive. You better hope a location tour isn't a supplement on any Bluray in the near future, making your work a bit for naught. Or maybe you'll be an inspiration

[jedidarrick]

Saw this film in one of my history classes a few months ago and I loved it. Hopefully Criterion will release this on Blu next year. Reliance MediaWorks is doing a new restoration on Bicycle Thieves, so this makes me think that it could be re-released on Blu next year.
http://variety.com/2014/film/news/class ... 201257457/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ellipsis7]

Don't know if this court action will have any bearing on a potential Blu Ray... And here is the actual document of the Complaint being put to the New York Courts...

[Yaanu]

Don't know if this court action will have any bearing on a potential Blu Ray... And here is the actual document of the Complaint being put to the New York Courts...

Doubtful, unless Criterion uses Corinth Films' translation and doesn't commission one of their own.

[Minkin]

Corinth Films has an extremely small catalog (of classic films that is), consisting of the following:
8 1/2
Bicycle Thieves
I Vitelloni
Oedipus Rex (1957)
Of Mice and Men (1939)
Bartleby (1970)

They used to license to Image (thus Criterion licensed three of the above from Image). Sometime in the past couple of years, Criterion picked up the rights to several catalogs, thus now skips the Image middleman and licenses direct. As a result, 8 1/2 + I vitelloni finally came to Criterion's Hulu (they were previously on Netflix with Image's DVD cover). I wouldn't expect this to have any impact on Criterion's deal with Corinth (as Criterion doesn't have any deal with Netflix). I'd also expect the other 3 MIA Corinth films to make their way to disc soon. I might guess that either Image or Netflix overstayed their welcome with the films in question, when Criterion had the rights (thus the lawsuit).

[domino harvey]

Upgrade coming in March

[TMDaines]

So the consensus was that the video quality of Arrow's release could easily be improved upon, but as Criterion's encoding is currently so shoddy, is there much excitement here?

[Drucker]

I don't think the Arrow was a 4k restoration. This is.

[cdnchris]

I still have to watch Burroughs but the last few titles since In Cold Blood have all looked pretty good so I don't think it's a write off yet.

Still, even with encoding issues on par with some other titles recently I'd still say Criterion's would more than likely look better than Arrow's.

[TMDaines]

I suppose they do have 5 years on them! I can't believe it has taken them so long! The packaging for the DVD set was beautiful, but I hope they stick it in a keep case for the upgrade.

[dwk]

It looks like it is keeping the thick booklet, so the Blu-ray will most likely be a digipak

[Kauno]

So the consensus was that the video quality of Arrow's release could easily be improved upon...

The Italian release is a lot better than Arrow's.