The single best-known work of postwar Italian neorealist cinema, with a script by the movement’s leading theoretician/philosopher, Cesare Zavattini. Using nonprofessional performers and shooting in the real streets of Rome, Bicycle Thieves tells the story of a penniless man (Lamberto Maggiorani) who’s first overjoyed to find a job hanging posters that will allow him to provide for his family, then crestfallen when the bicycle he needs for his work is stolen. A simple story, told honestly and with infinite compassion—and a quiet revolution in world cinema.

“A brilliant and devastating film.” Bosley Crowther, New York Times

“A wholly satisfying film in that de Sica has so simplified and mastered the mechanics of the job that nothing stands between you and his intention.” – Richard Winnington, Sight & Sound