'Bicycle Thieves' and The Italian Neorealism

After Second World War, as a vanquished country, Italian society was in turmoil. Politically, constitutional referendum failsand the reform measures government introduced did not give people sense ofgain. Therefore, social rifts are more obvious. Economically, due to the lossof war, the life of Italian people was extremely poor. There is seriously unemployment problem. In addition, people's minds were mutilated by fascism.Under such a social background, the Italian Neorealism occurred. It is therenewal and evolution of realism. Some young film artists who have been baptized by the anti-fascist struggle have created a number of very simple,sincere and profound art films which have attracted the attention of filmpeople from all over the world. These art films usually focus on socialprogress, democracy and equality. Kartal (2013) had defined Italian Neorealismin this way: it is not only an art reaction, but also a kind of inevitable. To make it simple, Italian Neorealism is a product of the anti-Fascist resistancemovement and it reflects the demands of progressive filmmakers committed todemocratic reform.

There are many representative works of ItalianNeorealism. For instance, Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, which wasin the list of the seventh Global Awards. It tells the story of how a man whohad his bicycle stolen became a man who stole a bicycle. In recent year, thetheft of a bicycle is a mere trifle. However, in the social context of Italy atthat time, taking bicycle as a story line, it not only shows the timecharacteristics of Italy, but also makes the film more ironic. Bicycle Thieves has strongly authenticity and sociality, which is one of features of Italian Neorealism. It really shows the difficulties and struggles of the Italian working class and condemn social injustice. Also, the film statedthe Italian economy at the time truly. At the beginning of the film, people cansee that a lot of men were in fierce competition for a post with posters.According to Kartal (2013), economic poverty is a common theme of Italian Neorealism. It always reveals to compel characters do something they would not do in films. For example, in Bicycle Thieves, if the protagonist did notfind his bicycle, he will lose his job again. Therefore, he had to steal abicycle. He did not want to be a thieve, just force by life.

On the basis of realism, Italian Neorealism hasanother feature as well. Which is breaking the rules (None, 2002). In otherwords, it is totally different from Holly Wood films. These kinds of films havethree signals: low cost (due to the bad economic environment of Italy), location shooting (natural light reflect real life) and non-professionalcharacters. Bazin (1971) mentioned that in Bicycle Thieves, ‘The workmancame from the Breda factory, the child was found hanging in the street, thewife was a journalist’. Especially the kid, he could be instead to anyone inthe movie actually, but De Sica let him to be a main character keep companywith the main character. Clearly, the role of the kid, is to witness hisfather’s stolen action. Thus, embodies the collapse of a father image and makehim more tragic. These kinds of characters can resonate with the audience to agreater extent. It can prove that Italian cinema now give more attention tonormal people that used to be ignore (Kartal, 2013).

Based on Cardullo (2011), in Italy in 1946, Neorealism were caught in bottleneck. There was a stereotype of neorealist films topeople. The against opinion did not focus on the repetition of technology, butthe content of story, such asThe Passionate Friends (1949) showed inCanna had been protest. In this point of view, what makes Bicycle Thieves outstanding like this? For this question, Cardullo (2011) gave his answer: itreveals the real and dirty side of Italian society and systematic find thedirty details. That is, people did not want to face it. Its social message issimple: ‘in the world where this workman lives, the poor must steal from eachother in order to survive’ (Cardullo, 2011). Whether Bicycle Thieves is the expression of suffering of workers or the revelation of the dirty partworking-class’s life, it has its meaning of Communism. Described the disasterthat fascist rule brought to ordinary Italians. Additionally, to show theItalian people's resistance to fascism and their desire for a democratic society. Besides, in the film, there is a scene which is about the character want to find his bicycle in someone else’s home but was opposed by the union owners. Itis a kind of human indifference. However, In Bazin’s (1971) opinion, it is anormal situation. The heart of the problem is the cumbersome pater-nalism ofthe Catholic Quakers. He thought that religion is one of the main factors thatblind to the personal tragedies. De Sica used a small incident criticized theinaction of the church at that time. Consequently, Cardullo said that De Sica‘have transferred neorealism from the Resistance to the Revolution’.

To conclude, Bicycle Thieves is one of a great film under the Neorealism context. Except show the real life of Italian peopleat that time, De Sica used his camera dissected the life in Italy. Let audience feel the bitterness of Italian working-class. History and culture have a strong effect to films. It is a cinematic movement and it is about how Italiandirectors used their creativity to solve the questions in reality (Kartal,2013). The spirit of the new realism has had a very profound influence on theworld film. Those creation methods, not only the theme, but also the relationship between camera and character or environment. Also, None (2002) noticed that after 1943, neorealist narratives as an ideology, which took a contradictory and highly dialectical political as background, had play a rolein social progress. As a process in the long history of film, Italian Neorealism film has come to end, but its revolutionary aesthetic ideas willinfluence the development of film art for a long time. And, its aestheticideas, such as documentary doctrine and making ordinary people the protagonistsof the screen, will last forever.

References

Bazin, A. (1971). Bicycle Thief. In A. Bazin.What is Cinema? Vol. II(pp.47-60). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University ofCalifornia Press.

Cardullo, B. (Ed.). (2011). André Bazin and Italian Neorealism. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.

None (2002) Book Reviews.Italian Culture.Vol.20:1-2, pp.189-239. DOI: 10.1179/itc.2002.20.1-2.189

Kartal, E. (2013). Defining Italian Neorealism: A Compulsory Movement. Cinej Cinema Journal. Vol. 2.2 (2013). DOI:10.5195/cinej.2013.73