The Ventnor Film Society Presents … Bicycle Thieves directed by Vittorio de Sica.
In the mid-1940s when Italy renounced 22 years of fascism and turned upon the German occupiers, its movie-makers created the most enduringly influential movement in the cinema – neorealism.
They took their cameras on to the streets and told the stories of ordinary people, using largely non-professional casts.
They influenced postwar Hollywood, shaped cinematic vocations and changed audience anticipations around the world.
De Sica’s classic, Bicycle Thieves, which won an Oscar for best foreign language film, made an indelible impact.
The movie centres on a handsome, unemployed man who needs to get his bike out of hock to work as a billposter in Rome.
On his first day, it’s stolen while he’s on his ladder pasting up an ad for a Rita Hayworth movie. So he goes off in pursuit of the thief, accompanied by his nine-year-old son, Bruno, one of the greatest performances from a child actor, Enzo Staiola.
The ultimate bonding between father and son is what saves a heartbreaking story from being unbearable.
Dir: Vittorio de Sica Italy 1948 93 mins Cert U
Cast: Lamberto Maggiorani Ricci, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell
Prices
Venue: Ventnor Winter Gardens
Single Ticket: £4.50 (£3.50 Concessionary)
Concessionary tickets are available to students, senior citizens and the unwaged.
All VFS presentations (apart from special events) take place on Tuesday evenings and start at 7.30pm. There is a bar in the building and guests may take drinks into film presentations. All are welcome; you do not have to belong to the Society in order to attend.
