Bicycle Thieves by Vittorio de Sica - Movie Review Example

Bicycle Thieves Vittorio De Sicas Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di Biciclette) is considered the representative work of Italian neo ical cinema. Recent culture studies critics consider such representations that create the only reality in its spatial and temporal aspects as a restriction in the aesthetic realm. Andre Bazin’s critical formulations and responses related to the movies of the 1940s explore the ways in which pure objective realism and spatial realism contrast with the earlier preoccupations of the 1920s and the 1930s with the Imagist movies that adhered to the concepts of the Plastics and the Montagists. De Sicca’s style is essentially of pure cinema, but the significance given to mise-en scene quite similar to a documentary is in fact contrived, for aesthetic purposes. Many sequences of the movie are perhaps interchangeable, but the entire effect created in the movie is very much indebted to the single events that serve the purpose of exposition and the construction of ideological stances. The theme of a workman (Antonio) and his small son (Bruno) searching for a stolen bicycle in the post-war Italy stricken with unemployment and poverty calls for substantial ideological space than technological gimmicks. The major shift in the story and the denouement, as the disheartened workman ends up stealing a bicycle in a weak moment and is caught, brings in a moral question. The son has to witness his heretofore adorable father’s downfall and come to terms with the fact that he is a mere human being, susceptible to the disappointments and temptations of life. There are many sequences in the movie that examples of the way the story has gained more meaning by the accidental events that formed a significant part of the spectacle. The scene in which the workman and the son seeks shelter from the rain and are being surrounded by the insensible young seminarians chattering, the scene inside the church, the scene in which the boy runs in front of a vehicle and has to stop as his father moves ahead unawares – all these are sufficient to prove that Bicycle Thieves is pure cinema, incorporating the real events into the fictional real of it. However, the sequence that I am analyzing here shows a more contrived aspect of the story, but at the same time depicts the possibilities of depth of focus scenes and natural sounds (which Bazin has seemingly ignored, to some extent, in his analyses). The sequence comprises the scenes after the search in the cathedral. Antonio and Bruno have a verbal quarrel, Antonio boxes Bruno’s ears, and Bruno sulks. Antonio asks Bruno to wait over the big bridge while he searches for the thief near the river. Antonio hears a commotion under the bridge and fear that Bruno has drowned, but finds to his relief that it was another boy who drowned. When he discovers Bruno over the bridge, Antonio feels sorry for hurting him and as compensation, asks him to take rest and even offers to buy him a pizza. They go inside a restaurant where they spend some time joyfully, trying to put behind their worries, but they finally remember how significant the lost bicycle is in their life and resume the chase. The scenes that comprise this sequence are shot in the streets, near the river, the sidewalk and inside the restaurant. This explains how the movie tries to replicate reality (or a semblance of it) in circumstances that are not artificial. It is observed that the movie in general this pattern: The techniques employed in the mise-en-scene meet the most exacting specifications of Italian neorealism. Not one scene shot in a studio. Everything was filmed in the streets. As for the actors, none had the slightest experience in theatre or film. The workman came from Breda factory, the child was found hanging around in the street, the wife was a journalist (Bicycle Thief, 50). The scenes make use of depth of field photography, which provides more imaginative space for the viewer. There are people and events outside the story that got trapped into the scenes. And since the movie was about the times in which it was shot, all these external interventions merge well into the story and even contributes meaning to it. The shouting from under the bridge is filled with real voices in times of an accident. It is similar to the sounds in the preceding scene inside the cathedral, where the prayers fill the background. Donato Totaro points out that Bazin has underscored the role played by sound in to the effect of realism, even as he realized how significant a step it was to switch from the silent era to the movies with sound: Bazin overlooks just how important a psychological role sound played in achieving the impression of reality, and the impression of space and depth that were so important to him. Sound added immensely to realism in cinema but Bazin, perhaps so as not to interfere with his spatial/temporal claim, downplays it. Bicycle Thieves makes use of even the tonal variations of sound to good effect. Though the singers in the restaurant fill in the background with their songs, the voices of Antonio and Bruno are distinct when they talk. Even as the whole restaurant scene looks like a real scene captured in the camera, the use of sound, along with the precision of events makes it clear that the director has in fact simulated it. The song bits addressed to Antonio and Bruno are in fact well-planned. The scene in which Bruno sulks and walks away from Antonio makes good effect of depth of field photography. This lets the viewers focus on the object of their choice or even to contemplate on the aesthetic effect the merging of the two characters’ gait and steps creates. It is observed that “[W]hile not all examples of deep focus cinematography were necessarily realist in nature or style, the primary influence upon the development of deep focus were strongly involved with the concept of realism as a proper means of expression and communication” (Aesthetics, 200). The scene of commotion under the bridge is also predominantly a deep focus one. It is the context that leads the viewers’ eyes to the object (a boy) that is retrieved from the river. It is Antonio’s perspective that the viewers follow in this scene, as the whole purpose of it is to create suspense and tension so as to relieve us in the end when it is shown that the drowned boy is not Bruno. Bazin’s famous observation of a few scenes in the film Where No Vultures Fly shows how much he values the authenticity that a real scene provides. The montage used in the film shows a child and a lioness are shown in separate shots but Bazin observes that the director “abandons his montage of separate shots that has kept the protagonists apart and gives us instead parents, child and lioness all in the same full shot. The single frame in which trickery is out of the question gives immediate and retroactive authenticity to the very banal montage that preceded it” (Bazin). In the Bicycle Thieves, the walk under the trees takes us suddenly from the commotion, but the sights of the bridge and the river create a spatial continuance. A group of people pass by Antonio and Bruno in a vehicle with the banner ‘Forza Modena’, and a soldier and his lover go near the wall and look at the sea as they are deciding to leave the place for the restaurant. When they enter the restaurant the inside shot reveals it as a place filled with people, bearers and a band of singers. From the open door, a horse’s head is visible outside. All these are not necessarily part of the story, but add to the realistic flavour, which cannot possibly be achieved in studio settings. This validates Bazin’s preference for long shots over editing and montage, as the events are better contextualized in deep focus long shots. There are of course some close up shots that focus on the reactions of Antonio and Bruno, but none of the scenes are shot apart and put in juxtaposition. The whole restaurant scene is full of possibilities with the expressions and sounds made by other customers, the bearers, the singers and the protagonists. None of the realistic quality is lost in the deep focus cinematography used there. Warren Buckland points out that “Bazin understood that the filmed event (whether staged or not) dominates, as is evident in the use of the long take to allow the event to unfold uninterrupted” (25). The entire structure of De Sicca’s Bicycle Thieves is based on this basic precept. Making a judicious use of the technical advancements in the sound and moving picture recording of the times, the movie holds back from unnecessary use of close-up shots, editing and montage. Even as the story is filled with idealistic and moral overtones, it creates an impression that the camera just follows the protagonists through the streets, capturing the events that just take place. The strong script behind the scenes is hidden effectively in this make-belief realism. The real events outside the script that take place in front of the camera are cleverly interwoven to the plot. It adds more meaning to the movie since the story deals with the time and space (post-War industrial Italy) in which it is screened. The chosen sequence from Bicycle Thieves encompasses all these elements in an understated manner and exhibits De Sicca’s mastery of craft and form that has made it the most representative among Italian Neorealist movies. References Bazin, Andre. What is Cinema?, 2 volumes. Berkley: University of California Press, 1971. Buckland, Warren. Teach Yourself: Film Studies. London: Hodder and Stoughton Educational, 2003. Totaro, Donato. “André Bazin: Part 1, Film Style Theory in its Historical Context”. November 15, 2007. What is Cinema? Bicycle Thieves Aesthetics Read More