Bicycle Theives: the Unspoken Allure of Communism

round Thieves The Unspoken Allure of Communism Bicycle Thieves is an typic demonstration of Italian neorealism that seeks to use non-professional actors to illustrate the struggle of average bulk surviving under a Fascist government. De Sicas use of celluloid techniques such as close-ups heightens the feat of his neo-realist aesthetic, especially seen in his street-level depictions of Rome in the airstream of World War II. The poverty and despair captured by De Sicas cinematography and account preferences illustrates that capitalism has failed the Italian people, providing them further with grinding poverty and inward despair.By focussing on the mundane details of a simple bits conduct, rather than a narrative involving high drama, the film effectively captures the humiliating effects of rank disparity while highlighting the role that communism could play in the improvement of life for the Italian people, if only a sense of conjunction could be established. Director Vi ttorio De Sica uses Bicycle Thieves as a vehicle in which to stress the burdens face by the individual in a stony and uncaring society.He has stated that his aesthetic intention with the film was to reintroduce the melodramatic into quotidian situations, the marvellous in a little news full stop considered by most people throwaway material (Cheshire), and so likewise is his main character, Antonio, a throwaway soul. As an unemployed person, he has no value to the larger society and no app bent worth to his family as a provider. It is only once he secures a position as a poster-hanger that he begins to see himself as a productive component of society.De Sica illustrates the importance of this job by demonstrating Antonios increasing desperation when his motorcyclean peak he flocknot do his job withoutis stolen. His neorealistic movement stems more from moral positive than from necessity be subject, as critic Godfrey Cheshire notes in Bicycle Thieves A enthusiastic Comm itment to the Real, the film was not shot in the low-budget style associated with neorealism, and instead was mounted by a team of movie professionals work on a budget generous enough to allow for large-scale surveys, hundreds of extras, and even the apparatus necessary to create a fake ainstorm (Cheshire). However, De Sica manages to stay on an atmosphere of true realism that is heightened by scenes c arfully chosen to parade Antonios quick d acceptward spiral as he and his son in the end fail to recover the lost bicycle. This devastating loss propels Antonio into a life of crime, demonstrating that under an uncaring government and without social support, the poor have no choice but to hurt each other for lack of a better outlet, and that those who are stolen from eventually become thieves as well. De Sica creates drama and illustrates his gunpoint by putting his protagonist in an unwinnable situation.Although Antonio has been sayed a job, he tin can only take it if he has a bicycle. Due to financial circumstances, the bicycle has been pawned. In this way, De Sica establishes the character of Antonios wife, Maria, who agrees to pawn their bed sheets to pay for the bicycle. This demonstrates that material teething ring is secondary to the security that will come with stable employment. The actors themselves play a huge role in successfully portraying De Sicas message, and he sticks to the requirements of neorealism by using only non-professional actors.As film theorist Andre Bazin states, none of the actors had the slightest buzz off in theatre or film. The workman came from the Breda factory, the child was found hanging almost in the street, the wife was a journalist (Bazin). An added level of realism can be found in using average people with faces that make the effects of time and experience. In his essay, Bicycle Thieves Ode to the Common Man. Charles Burnett notes the effect of De Sicas choice to use non-professional actors, writing that thei r faces are so expressive they seem to be playing themselves (Burnett).To further this realism, the director takes a similar approach with his accentuate players. For example, in the pawn shop scene the director captures an elderly man with a tired, lined face who is trying, without success, to pawn a pair of binoculars. His expressiveness makes the scene seem more real, squalid, and filled with pain, while also illustrating that the Ricci family are not alone in their poverty. Indeed, the upwards panning shot that displays a towering plenitude of pawned sheets just like the set that Maria is exchanging for the bicycle, overwhelmingly says the terrible effect of unrestrained capitalism on the poor.To further show the damage caused by a social and governmental system that doesnt value human exigencys, De Sica characterizes the focal ratio class as the true villains of the piece. This is seen very clearly while Antonio is unproductively searching the stalls filled with disasse mbled bicycle parts while a good-looking young man blows bubbles into the air, filled with self-satisfaction and utterly unsuspecting of Antonios total terror. Symbolically, the bicycles can represent both the destruction of his ability to hold a living wage, and his own mental breakdown in having to tolerate the loss of such a vital mode of transportation.In this scene, also, a pedophile tries to lure Antonios son, Bruno, into his clutches. Although the scene is populated with passerby, nobody pays any mind to the dangers faced by the vulnerable boy, let alone steps forward to offer assistance. By showing the oblivion of the group, De Sicoemphasizes the isolation of the individual, as well as demonstrating that no one, not even small children, are safe from the grabby nature of the rich in a society where, as Burnett writes, the predators are the rich and disconnected (Burnett).The gripping conclusion of Bicycle Thieves further demonstrates how the need to secure employment in order to travel can cause honest people to behave in a dishonest manner. De Sico uses a shot of Antonio sitting outside of a football stadium, hungrily eyeing unbounded parked bicycles a temptation that is akin to showing a ravenous man a plate of food. Through the directors use of close-up shots of Antonios pained expression, we experience his inner turmoil as morality fights with his baser needs.The climax occurs when he finally tries to steal a bicycle outside of an apartment building and is caught by a group of men who taunt and abuse while Bruno watches in horror. Cheshire writes that this point marks where Antonios solitary ordeal reaches a humiliatingly human beings climax (Cheshire), and indeed it is a fitting conclusion for a film that has taken place entirely in the public environment of Rome.By make use of the city streets as his set, and the citys population as his background cast, De Sico manages to show all of the missed opportunities where Antonios life could ha ve been changed for the better, were someone to have only taken an interest in his plight. As Bazin states in Neorealism and clarified moving-picture show The Bicycle Thieves, the thesis implied is wondrously and outrageously simple in the knowledge base where this workman lives, the poor must steal from each other in order to survive.But this thesis is never stated as such, it is just that events are so linked together that they have the appearance of a noble truth while retaining an anecdotal quality (Bazin). In such a manner, the irony of Antonios predicament remains subtle, left for the viewer to determine establish on their own experiences and observations. De Sicos film is most notable for what it avoids saying about(predicate) the benefits of communism when held up against a corrupt, bloated style of capitalism that treats the working person as fodder for a greater machine.Rather than treat Bicycle Thieves as a propaganda device for his opinions, the director instead all ows the audience to draw their own conclusions based on the realistic information he has provided to them. But the significance of Antonios struggle is clear community support is vital for the individual to survive under difficult circumstances. Without a collective group from which to seek quilt and assistance in times of trouble, the individual is left as purposeless and panicked as Antonio during his solitary and unsuccessful attempt to retrieve his stolen bicycle.Works Cited Bazin, Andre. Neorealism and Pure Cinema The Bicycle Thieves. Theory Kit. 21 October 2007. Web. 1 whitethorn 2011. Bicycle Thieves. Dir. Vittorio De Sica. Perf. Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell. Criterion, 2007. DVD. Burnett, Charles. Bicycle Thieves Ode to the Common Man. Criterion Film Essays. Criterion. 7 February 2007. Web. 1 May 2011. Cheshire, Godfrey. Bicycle Thieves A Passionate Commitment to the Real. Criterion Film Essays. Criterion. 7 February 2007. Web. 1