THE BICYCLE THIEVES drives into the Criterion Collection

Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 masterpiece THE BICYCLE THIEVES arrives on BluRay March 29th from the Criterion Collection.

Lamberto Maggiorani stars as Antonio Ricci, a poor man who gets a chance to support his family again with a new job posting ads around Rome. The only problem is he needs a bicycle to do this. When his loving wife (Lianella Carell) pawns some family belongings to get him a bike, he is overjoyed. Antonio’s good fortune doesn’t last long when the bike is stolen from him on the street one day. Antonio and his young son Bruno (Enzo Staoila) look everywhere for the bike but as the days pass he becomes more and more desperate to get some funds for his family.

De Sica’s classic is one of the prime examples of the post war Neo-Realism in Italian Cinema. These were emotionally moving works of cinema based around the drama found in the everyday lives of regular people.

Criterion’s new Blu Ray Edition is a must own for film aficionados. BUY FROM AMAZON

SPECIAL FEATURES:

  • New digital restoration (4K on the Blu-ray), with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Working with De Sica, a collection of interviews with screenwriter Suso Cecchi d’Amico, actor Enzo Staiola, and film scholar Callisto Cosulich
  • Life as It Is, a program on the history of Italian neorealism, featuring scholar Mark Shiel
  • Documentary from 2003 on screenwriter and longtime Vittorio De Sica collaborator Cesare Zavattini, directed by Carlo Lizzani
  • Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Godfrey Cheshire and reminiscences by De Sica and his collaborators

bicyclethieves

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *