In this essay I will identify and analyse the dominant stylistic approach of the film Bicycle Thieves, as well as its effect on the audience and the overall importance of realism in film as a representation of reality.
Bicycle Thieves was made in 1948 while Italy was still reeling from the effects of the war that gave birth to neo-realism and it was in this year that the movement had reached the height of its power with Roberto Rossellini’s Germania Anno Zero and Luchino Visconti’s La Terra Treme also being released that year. It seems natural then that placed within this context, with the neo-realist movement at its zenith and “with Italy reborn not as a socialist paradise but as a capitalist purgatory beset with massive unemployment.” (Chesire, 2007) that Bicycle Thieves would become a classic example of Italian neo-realism.
Despite a relatively sizable budget, De Sica clearly opted for a very consciously neo-realist approach to production by shooting on location and using non-professional actors to achieve a certain visual authenticity. Shooting on location provides a mise en scene with a realism all of its own beyond the verisimilitude offered by constructed sets and De Sica’s choice of location is deliberate: the union hall, the church, the apartment blocks and the parade of market stalls (1) are all typical working class environments that illustrate in great deal the world that Antonio must navigate. Similarly by casting unknown and non-professional actors, De Sica renders his protagonist (and the rest of the cast by extension) as “at once as perfect and as anonymous and as objective as his bicycle” (Bazin, 1949, p56) and so creates a mirror for his audience, an everyman free of the preconceptions attached to known actors or stars. This neo-realist approach can also be seen in the story itself, written by the notable neo-realist theorist and proponent Cesare Zavattini, which is at base remarkably simple and direct concerned as it is with the minutia of a single unremarkable event in an ordinary person’s life. It is in this way that the film reveals a social conscience of sorts and a quintessential neo-realist preoccupation with the problems faced by the working class in the face of existing socioeconomic problems. Throughout the film we are subtly drawn into a world of sharp class divides (witness the scene in the restaurant in which Antonio and his son sit behind a much richer family) and impoverished individuals not unlike the protagonist. This key point is further reinforced by the film’s conclusion in which Antonio is himself reduced to thievery, thus demonstrating how this seemingly individual story plays into the greater narrative of a broken society.
1. The use of these specific locations provides a physical social context for the story.
In terms of technique the film relies upon simple yet effective methods such as long takes and deep focus that purposefully show us as much of the city and it’s inhabitants as the protagonist himself. It is the use of deep focus that opens the image up and allows for a type of “realistic” vision in which the audience is not directed to observe a specific detail but can allow their eyes to wander over the image. Static camerawork is also heavily utilised to further heighten realism by being as unobtrusive as possible to mask the role of the camera and create a more direct relationship between the audience and the actors on screen.
However there are notable occasions during which the camera deliberately draws the viewer’s attention to certain details through sudden and unexpected movements such as panning away from Antonio completely to follow a street urchin as he begs an apparently affluent gentleman for money (2).
2) Camera movement is at times used to draw attention to small details that illustrate the desperation of the society the protagonist inhabits.
Camera movement is also used at times to imitate the perspective of a given subject, sacrificing a degree of objectivity in order strengthen the relationship between the audience and the subject. An example of this occurs in the pawnshop as Antonio watches a man deposit his pawned linen on a shelf; the action cuts between Antonio and the man, with the movement of the camera matching Antonio’s gaze.
The editing is function and unobtrusive, aimed mostly at moving the story forward though it is used at times to more expressionistic ends such as the scene in the pawn shop or a sequence later the film as Antonio frantically searches for an old man in a church. During this sequence relatively rapid cuts are employed to compliment the action on screen and accentuate Antonio’s growing anxiety.
Aside from the visual aspects of the film there is also the matter of the sound. Throughout the film diegetic sound, such as the performers in the music hall or the chattering of the merchants in the market square, is used to compliment the locations and further ground them as authentic physical spaces. However the use of non-diegetic sound seems to disregard the film’s overall dedication to authenticity by relying upon the score in an attempt to artificially heighten the emotional tone of key scenes and thereby manipulate the audience. This can be most clearly seen in the film’s climax as the score becomes increasingly melodramatic as Antonio is apprehended after attempting to steal a bicycle and publicly shamed in front of his son.
When examining Italian neo-realism as a whole and its suitability as a vehicle for representing the world, it is impossible not to take note of Andre Bazin’s writing on the subject. Bazin believed that neo-realism represented ” a triumphant evolution of the language of cinema” (Bazin, 1948, p26) however he also recognised that realism “can only be achieved in one way-through artifice” (Bazin, 1948, p26). Despite this Bazin’s views on realism largely seem to rely upon restrictive ideals that overlook the practical nature of film and the essential impossibility of completely separating the subjectivity of the filmmaker from the film itself. Even with the use of long takes, a static camera and deep focus, a camera is by it’s nature exclusive and must therefore be directed to some degree, requiring the director to interpret reality to a specific end.
This said the use of neo-realism as a stylistic choice works in the case of the Bicycle Thieves in large part due to subject matter of the film. As the story concerns a simple working class man on a search through a city for a missing bicycle it seems appropriate to use an approach that emphasises the mundane nature of the narrative and the underlying messages concerning the social and economic ills of post-war Italy. The difficulty of Antonio’s search is communicated to the audience through the indifference of the fractured and stratified society around him. It is by using techniques typical to neo-realist films, mise en scene over montage, deep focus over shallow focus and medium to long shots over close ups, that De Sica creates this continuous physical and psychological world, a maze not only of architecture but also of people, that exists beyond the protagonist.
References
Bazin, A., 1949. Bicycle Thief. In: H. Gray, ed. 1972. What is Cinema Volume 2. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp.47-60.
Bazin, A., 1948. An Aesthetic of Reality: Neorealism. In: H. Gray, ed. 1972. What is Cinema Volume 2. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp.16-40.
Cheshire, G. , Bicycle Thieves: A Passionate Commitment to the Real. 2007. [online] Available at:<http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/467-bicycle-thieves-a-passionate-commitment-to-the-real> [Accessed 06 January 2012]
Bibliography
Bazin, A., 1955. The Evolution of the Language of Cinema. In: H. Gray, ed. 1968. What is Cinema Volume 1. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp.23-40.
Nowell-Smith, G., Italian Neo-realism. In: P. Cook, ed. 2011. The Cinema Book. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.233-237.
Zavattini, C., 1953. Some Ideas on Cinema. [pdf] Available at: <http://filepedia.org/files/Cesare%20Zavattini%20-%20Some%20Ideas%20on%20the%20Cinema.pdf> [Accessed 04 January 2012]
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