Hacker Cinema
Bicycle Thieves
Ladri di biciclette
1948 · Film · 89 min
Directed by Vittorio De Sica
Unemployed Antonio is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. However on his first day, his bicycle—essential to his work—gets stolen. His job is doomed unless he can find the thief. With the help of his son, Antonio combs the city, becoming desperate for justice.
5 positive3 neutralfrom 8 commenters
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8 comments on Hacker News
Thanks! Here's the full list: 2001: A Space Odyssey, 8½, Aguirre the Wrath of God, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, All That Heaven Allows, Apocalypse Now, Ashes and Diamonds, A Woman Under the Influence, Barry Lyndon, Bicycle Thieves, Breathless, Casablanca, Céline and Julie Go Boating, Chinatown, Chinese Roulette, Citizen Kane, City Lights, City of Pirates, Contempt, Daisies, Damnation, Dishonored, Earth, Electra My Love, El Topo, Eraserhead, Eyes Wide Shut, Film Socialisme, Fitzcarraldo, Fuego en Castilla, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Holy Motors, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, In a Year with 13 Moons, India Song, Inland Empire, Irma Vep, Koyaanisqatsi, La Dolce Vita, La Jetée, Late Spring, L'Eau de la Seine, Le Voyage dans la Lune, Lolita, Los Olvidados, Lost Highway, Lucifer Rising, Man with a Movie Camera, Metropolis, Mirror, Mulholland Drive, Night Music, Ordet, Orpheus, Persona, Pickpocket, Playtime, Psycho, Rebecca, Rosemary's Baby, Rumble Fish, Scarface, Seven Samurai, Sherlock Jr., Singin' in the Rain, Stalker, Sunset Boulevard, Taste of Cherry, Taxi Driver, Testament of Orpheus, The 400 Blows, The Blood of a Poet, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Color of Pomegranates, The Green Ray, The Holy Mountain, The Isle, The Lady from Shanghai, The Night of the Hunter, The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Seventh Seal, The Spirit of the Beehive, The Tales of Hoffmann, The Tree of Life, The Turin Horse, Time of the Gypsies, Tokyo Story, Touch of Evil, Trans-Europ-Express, Ugetsu, Un Chien Andalou, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Vampyr, Videodrome, Wavelength, Werckmeister Harmonies, Wild Strawberries, Moonlight Sonata, Stellar, The Haunted House Biased toward European art cinema, experimental work, and directors who broke conventional narrative rules.
I was actually just in a museum, and thinking about this attitude, that the most important thing is that "art is a conversation", is what kills an art form. Thinking the important thing is "the conversation" is the sign that an art form has taken a turn for the hermetic, that it's insiders making art for other insiders, and is headed for cultural irrelevancy. Art requires some context to fully appreciate, but when the context is an insider's list of what's important then the art form has just died. Even without context, you can get something out of looking at Michaelangelo's Pieta, and the cultural context to appreciate it is available to broad audience.
An interesting contrast is movies, which so far have not taken that hermetic turn to the same extent. You look at a list of "the hundred greatest movies of all time", and basically 90% of them can be appreciated by anyone with the attention span. You don't need to go to college (or be Italian) to appreciate "The Bicycle Thieves", let alone be an expert on movie history.
Once an art form takes that hermetic turn, then everything becomes a game of relying on what experts say and brand management. That's why comic books are trash and Roy Lichtenstein panels sell for millions.
The old Italian classic movie “Bicycle Thieves” is almost 100 years old now.
In many places (I’m most familiar with Seattle) the rate of bicycle theft is so high it has to be organized crime. I once saw (assumed “homeless”) people on Capitol Hill openly carry around bolt cutters while looking through bike racks and taking whatever they could. They had at least a dozen bike haul and it looked like the police didn’t stop them. There’s no way they are pawning off that many bikes. There are at least a handful of sophisticated fences and a real crime ring in the city targeting bikes, creating a huge incentive for addicts to steal them. And I don’t see much political will to take these down.
Property is not worth a life. Not even the life of the person damaging it.
Have you seen the film "Bicycle Thieves"? If someone's property is his livelihood one can have sympathies for those defending it with extreme measures.
Agree. From the older films listed, Stella Dallas is sweet, The Bicycle Thieves is engaging, La Strada will make you fall in love with Fellini's wife....
Just out of curiosity recently, I looked up some of the best films ever on RT, to see if they all have 100% from critics.
Bicycle thieves [arguably the best film ever(it is amazing and does seems to top quite few best film ever lists)] does not have 100%!! David Jenkins writing for Time-Out decided to be an edge-lord hipster extraordinaire and give it a thumbs down. Just thought that was funny. The audience scores seem to be a lot more trustworthy than the reviewer ones on RT anyway, there is a lot of talk going around anyway about how Sony for example are getting 100% by letting certain 'reviewers' review the film on RT before any other reviewers.
Link to RLM guys discussing this
https://youtu.be/_HrR5X72_LM?t=9m2s
_
Also personally. I dont get why anyone would go to the cinema. Be at their location at a time not of your choosing, pay through the nose, get price gouged for shitty food, be subjected to 10 minutes of ads, in order to watch a mediocre film on a super-loud boomy system with terrible audio balance, in a noisy room filled with potential assholes who may block your view / break your immersion, and also you cant pause the film at any point to piss.
Obligatory classical film reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_Thieves
My favorite movies, but for no particuliar reason:
Platoon
Wall street
Three days of the condor
Chinatown
Sunset Boulevard
The Stranger(actually all of Orson Wells movies)
Any Andy Griffith episode
Bicycle thieves 1948
Niagara
Double indemnity (actually most billy wilder films)
The Misfits (last film for Marilyn and Rhett Butler--forgot his name.)
Giant
Rebal without a cause
Leaving Las Vegas
Blow out (all three)
Saturday night fever
Yes, even Urban Cowboy
One flew over the cocos nest
Deliverance
Hanna and her sisters
East of Eden
Dr. Strange love
Back to the future
Jaws
In cold blood(with Robert Blake)
In cold blood (with Eric Roberts, and forget his name)
The asphalt jungle 1948?
All about eve
The hot rock
Little Haus Big Halsey (Redford said it was his worst movie. Yes, it's masagonistic. Yes, he plays a jerk. But the movie captures the 70's I recall as a kid. The filming is great. His side kick in the movie did a great job playing a sweet, innocent, country teen.)
A lot of foreign films I have yet to see.