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Bicycle Thieves [1948] | ![Bicycle Thieves [1948]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512SP7T1VVL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Vittorio De Sica
Actors: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell, Gino Salamerenda
Studio: Arrow Films
Category: DVD
List Price: £17.99
Buy New: £4.51
You Save: £13.48 (75%)
New (18) from £4.51
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 3733
Format: Black & White, Pal
Languages: English (Subtitled), Italian (Original Language)
Rating: Universal, suitable for all
Region: 0
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 94 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5027035004150
ASIN: B000CZ0O4U
Theatrical Release Date: 1948
Release Date: February 20, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New - Swift dispatch from UK mainland
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Simply one of the all time great pieces of cinema May 8, 2008
Mr. G. C. Stone (Newcastle, UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Sometimes you come across a film that transends normal expectations and criticism. 'Classic' might be overused, but if there was ever a film that deserved such status, it is this one. A simple tale - post war Italy and a father's efforts to better himself and his family. And then a bicycle is stolen - that's all. But here we have a man losing everything of what little he has. He must retrieve it, to the point of obsession. If you have even the slenderest of hearts this rough around the edges, black and white masterpiece will move you to the core. The key relationship is that of a son with his dad - it illuminates the whole experience. Don't expect sloppy sentiment - just brilliant story telling and scene setting and 'real' acting.
If you don't see this film you are missing out on one of the best experiences that cinema (and therefore 20th century art) can possibly offer.
 Not my cup of tea! February 29, 2008
C. Clark
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a great film and if I had been asked to watch it as part of film studies course would have found it of great interest. The characters are fantastic and it is a beautiful peice of art. However at times I found it painfully slow and the conclusion to the story very unsatifying. The missing subtitles were very annoying at times which added to the lack of overall entertainment value. This is a great film but beware that in an age of fast moving films this slow style is not everyones cup of tea.
In a Class Of its Own December 23, 2007
Jay (Mauritius)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A film of real life, real emotions, real people. Bicycle Thieves was a film like no other because it was made like no other. With non actors, natural light, filmed on locations, the film captured the truth of Neorealism. The film is made up of a series of "small moments." The fact is, the entire movie is made up of pureness. It tackles issues of class, politics, and post war activities. Overall, the film is about life and hope. The unhappy ending only makes the film more real. If you are a son who loved his father and understood who he was and why he was the way he was........watch this movie.
A marvellous classic of the Italian cinema July 26, 2007
Mr. Ian A. Macfarlane (Fife, Scotland)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Vittoria de Sica's famous film is as powerful, raw and moving now as it was when it was made - and in addition it has something of the feel of a historical document, portraying as it does the desperation of an honest man with a wife and children in the social and economic maelstrom of post-War Italy. He gets a job - hundreds do not - as a bill-poster, but he must have a bicycle ; the job depends on it. With difficulty he gets one, but on his first day at work, it is stolen. What looked like a promising future will turn to ashes for him, his wife and his two children, one a baby, if the bicycle is not recovered. With his son Bruno, wonderfully, wonderfully played by Enzo Staiolla, he sets out on a desperate quest to find the bicycle among the thousands and thousands in the city. The film moves through a series of episodes in the market place, a church ministering to the poor, the riverside, a brothel, a seedy quarter where he actually comes upon the thief, and so on until, at the end, despair drives him mad and, in view of his son, he himself turns thief and is hunted like a criminal. There is no silver lining and no solution ; the film just ends. It is constantly involving, beautifully made, marvellously acted and even has little touches of humour, but in the end we are left with the memory of the strength of the relationship between father and son and the hope, but not the certainty, that somehow things will turn out all right. It is a wonderful film.
 No translation given October 1, 2006
gaattc (Berne, Suisse)
20 out of 24 found this review helpful
Bicycle Thieves is of course a marvelous movie. I have just one issue with the DVD. For about one third (I'm not exaggerating) of the dialogue, which is (thankfully) in its original Italian, there is no translation given. Maybe the subtitlers deemed these parts unimportant or obvious. Well, I'd like to decide that on my own, and would therefore appreciate it, if in a new edition ALL dialogue had subtitles. I mean no offence by that and hope Arrow understands my frustration with being lost in, well, missing translation.
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