BICYCLE THIEVES
- dir. VITTORIO DE SICA
- cast. LAMBERTO MAGGIORANI, ENZO STAIOLA, LIANELLA CARELL
- year. 1948
- country. ITALY
- run-time. 89min
- rating. U
BOY AND BICYCLE
- dir. RIDLEY SCOTT
- cast. TONY SCOTT
- year. 1965
- country. UK
- run-time. 25min
- rating. PG
£5.00 (£3.50 conc.)
Doors 6:30PM - Film 7:00PM
When Antonio’s bicycle is stolen, he fears he will no longer be able to do his job. Lacking the funds he needs to replace it, he and young son Bruno embark on a desperate search across the streets of Rome.
Ranked in polls as one of the greatest films ever made, Vittorio De Sica’s film is as much about Italians in post-War, post-Fascist Italy as it is about the relationship between father and son. Defining neo-realism, a short-lived approach to film-making that focused on simple, touching, humanist stories, Bicycle Thieves is one of the most moving of the genre. Heralded as the greatest film ever made on release, winning an Oscar in 1949 and topping the Sight & Sound film poll in 1952, De Sica’s film has influenced filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Ken Loach, Charles Burnett and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.
+ Boy and Bicycle
The adventures of a truant schoolboy cycling around Hartlepool, Ridley Scott's first film boasts original music by John Barry and was shot for £65 on a Bolex 16mm camera while he was a photography student at the Royal College of Art in London. Bearing little resemblance to his later Hollywood blockbusters, it's a lyrical James Joyce-inspired portrait of early sixties North East England using a stream of consciousness that reveals the everyday thoughts and feelings of the titular boy, played by the director's brother Tony Scott.
Also showing in this season: Wadjda + Mama Agatha, The Kid With a Bike + Vive Le Tour (short)