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Heralded as the greatest film ever made on release, winning an Oscar in 1949 and topping the Sight & Sound film poll in 1952, De Sica’s seminal work of Italian neorealism has had an impact on cinema worldwide from release to the present day, with filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray and Ken Loach claiming the film as a direct influence on their own.

Bicycle Thieves tells the story of Antonio, a long unemployed man who finally finds employment putting up cinema posters for which he needs a bicycle. His wife pawns all the family linen to redeem the already pawned bicycle and for Antonio salvation has come, until the bicycle is stolen. Antonio and his son take to the streets in a desperate search to find the bicycle. Bicycle Thieves is as much about the position of Italians in post-War, post-Fascist Italy as the relationship between father and son, told through the labyrinth of the cinematic city with De Sica’s arresting visual poetry. Defining neorealism, a small period of filmmaking that focused on simple, humanist stories, Bicycle Thieves was one of the most captivating and moving.

Arrow Academy presents Vittorio De Sica’s masterpiece on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Brand new restored high definition digital transfer of the film
• Newly translated and more complete optional English subtitles
• Feature length audio commentary by Italian Cinema expert Robert Gordon, author of BFI Modern Classics 'Bicycle Thieves'
• ‘Cesare Zavattini’ a feature length documentary by director Carlo Lizzani on the great screenwriter, novelist, critic, long time De Sica collaborator and founder of Italian neorealism
• ‘Timeless Cinema’, a documentary portrait of director, actor and screenwriter Vittorio De Sica
• Original trailer advertising De Sica’s films, featuring Bicycle Thieves star Lamberto Maggiorani and Francesco Golisano presenting Miracle in Milan
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Samuel Webster

tojoed wrote:Bicycle Thieves on Blu-Ray in February.

I'm not too optimistic on this after seeing what they did to Cinema Paradiso on Blu-ray. A great four disk DVD set with both cuts, lots of extras and the soundtrack (and at a fantastic price I might add), followed up by a Blu-ray with only the theatrical cut and fixed subs. ](*,)

Why are Arrow so inconsistent?

TMDaines wrote:

tojoed wrote:Bicycle Thieves on Blu-Ray in February.

I'm not too optimistic on this after seeing what they did to Cinema Paradiso on Blu-ray. A great four disk DVD set with both cuts, lots of extras and the soundtrack (and at a fantastic price I might add), followed up by a Blu-ray with only the theatrical cut and fixed subs. ](*,)

Why are Arrow so inconsistent?

How does Cinema Paradiso stack up as a BD? Do you think they'll at least present de Sica without DNR-and-friends?

Ben Cheshire wrote:How does Cinema Paradiso stack up as a BD? Do you think they'll at least present de Sica without DNR-and-friends?

Well here is a DVD Times review of the Cinema Paradiso Blu-ray: Review

TMDaines wrote:Well here is a DVD Times review of the Cinema Paradiso Blu-ray:Review

This sort of thing doesn't bode well:

The transfer (of Cinema Paradiso on BD by Arrow) is not a complete success, I'm afraid. I checked the disc against my miramax edition, which seems to be the same print, and the same sequences in that film come from the same poorer quality materials here, and I suspect that contrast and colour boosting has been applied to improve some of the image as well. Sometimes whites in fabrics are bleach bright and skintones are often pinkish, there are also a few examples of edges which seem too pronounced. It's the daytime sequences where I notice these issues more as the contrast seems to be about right and shadow detail is ok if not exceptional. Generally, this is not a huge improvement on the R1 disc in terms of detail or colouring.

I don't know anything about "Cinema Paradiso", but I do know that the SD "Bicycle Thieves" was a very good edition, equal to the Criterion. That does bode well.

The Criterion and Arrow discs may well have come from the same HD master.

tojoed wrote:I don't know anything about "Cinema Paradiso", but I do know that the SD "Bicycle Thieves" was a very good edition, equal to the Criterion. That does bode well.

I have the Arrow Bicycle Thieves and it's a decent edition in terms of just the transfer of the film but as a total package it doesn't even hold a candle to the Criterion. The Criterion, which arrived two days ago (one of my first two!), is one of the most beautiful DVD releases I've seen.

I suppose I should thank companies like Arrow for doing some terrible releases as that is what led me to search out and discover Criterion & MoC in the first place.

Despite that I feel obliged to point out that their DVD releases of Cinema Paradiso and Miracle in Milan are both excellent. Their Fassbinder releases aren't bad either.

TMDaines wrote: I have the Arrow Bicycle Thieves and it's a decent edition in terms of just the transfer of the film but as a total package ...

The transfer is all we were talking about, and, as MichaelB says, it comes from the same HD master as Criterion used.

Yes, absolutely - I thought the fact that the Criterion wipes the floor with the Arrow on the extras front didn't really need mentioning.

On the other hand, I'm region-locked on Blu-ray at the moment, so I'm definitely interested in this release if the transfer's up to scratch - I'm not that bothered about the extras.

Sadly, I've just received word that their BD of The Bicycle Thieves has been pushed back to at least the end of the year, if even then.

Tony, on a different note, do you have any further info on the delayed "Bicycle Thieves" Blu-Ray?

It's on the schedule but I can't honestly say whether you will see it this year, we want this looking tip top so that may mean a delay.

Fantastic, cancelled my preorder for Italian release of "Bicycle Thieves".

Any idea if BT will be region-free?

eerik wrote:

Der Spieler wrote:Any idea if BT will be region-free?

Bicycle Thieves = region B locked

FML.

Looking forward to Bicycle Thieves! I'm just hoping we get a "hands-off" MoC-style transfer! Please, please, please!

Italian Blu-ray of Bicycle Thieves (released last week) looks fantastic. Can't wait to get the Arrow release.

Bicycle Thieves Blu-ray @ DVDBeaver. Looks quite heavily filtered compared to the Italian disc.

eerik wrote:Bicycle Thieves Blu-ray @ DVDBeaver. Looks quite heavily filtered compared to the Italian disc.

Damn. This is what they've got after so many delays!? They blew the very first Arrow Academy release!? Incorrigible.

It doesn't exactly come as a surprise.

Well good job guys, keep on ignoring the criticism.

It looks good to me, as it did to Twose. I don't know what you're all getting at.

There are no exactly matching frames to compare, but I guess these two don't come too far:

UK

Italian

I've only seen the Arrow Bicycle Thieves Blu-ray in motion, but it looked fine to me - grain is certainly visible, and the level of detail is enough for the weave of Antonio Ricci's jacket to be come across vividly in a way that it didn't on DVD (that grab makes the image look much softer than what's actually playing on my 1080p screen as I write this). If the Italian grab is representative of what it looks like in motion, there's a distinct possibility that the grain may be rather too overt in a way that's potentially distracting.

There's a general tendency in these discussions to assume that any form of DNR is somehow evil - whereas in fact it's often necessary to replicate the effect of theatrical projection, given that initial HD telecines can often be sharper than the cinematographer originally intended (as demonstrated by films where supposedly invisible wires are clearly visible on Blu-ray).

Of course, I have no way of knowing whether this is the case here, but it's certainly reasonable speculation based on my own experience of actually watching the Blu-ray.

(Just to clarify, although I contributed to this release, I had no input whatsoever into the technical side of things, so in this respect I know no more than any other reviewer).

andyli wrote:Damn. This is what they've got after so many delays!? They blew the very first Arrow Academy release!? Incorrigible.

How those grabs can elicit this comment is beyond me. I think it looks spiffy. There's unprecedented detail, for example on Antonio's jacket; the image seems to be correct and not squeezed; the blacks are less boosted too. Plus there are a commentary, two hours of features and a booklet.