A journey through the first 100 years (or so) of moving images recorded on film.
Friday, October 29, 2021
Fides
When Antonio's bicycle is stolen, he loses more than a bike. The brand name of the bicycle "Fides" (Faith in Latin) suggest it has symbolic value. What is the significance of that symbol? What does Antonio lose? Are there other symbols in this film?
In the film Bicycle Thieves, the bike signifies the link between Antonio as an individual in distress against a collective of people. Antonio is alone and quickly outnumbered when he steals a bicycle. Throughout the movie, however, Antonio is outnumbered. For instance, when a room full of cops ignores his problem; the worthless speeches, show, and recommendations at the union hall. Also, the countless flea market vendors; the flea markets themselves, which contain hundreds of bicycles and bicycle parts in contrast to the one Antonio desires. Finally, he transforms into the "bicycle thief." "Fides," the company’s brand name, is Latin for faith or trust. The acts of various characters in Bicycle Thieves are based on spirituality and faith. Although it is not entirely separate from religion, spirituality is primarily represented by the seer in the film. Antonio meets the seer despite dismissing her earlier in the film due to his dependence on blind faith. Antonio is eager for some authority figure to offer him guidance and hope after receiving little support on his hunt to retrieve his bike. Antonio's instruction from the seer is straightforward. Antonio's perseverance to reclaim his bicycle is rejuvenated as a result of this breakthrough, implying that putting one's faith in spirituality has some true power. Antonio's capacity to making a living and a have a better life is enhanced by his bicycle, which improves his social status. Antonio will be unable to earn a living and offer a significantly better lifestyle for his family if he does not have access to a bike. His job depends on him having the bike in good condition and at his convenience. After the bike is stolen, Antonio feels compelled to go out and steal another bike to make up for his loss.
In the 1948 film, "Bicycle Thieves", Antonio Ricci’s stolen bicycle symbolizes his declining faith in himself and his morals. The director, Vittorio De Sica purposely named the brand of the bicycle “Fides”, which in Latin translates to faith, since Antonio desperately needed the bicycle to have faith that he will provide for his family. Metaphorically, Antonio is searching for faith by attempting to recover his essential bike. As the movie progresses, Antonio loses faith in trying to retrieve his lost bicycle since multiple people discourage him from continuing his journey. The first sign of Antonio’s desperation and decline in morality is depicted in the seer scene. In the beginning of the movie, Antonio scolds his wife for wasting their money on a “fortune teller” that allegedly will predict a person’s future. However, after a long day of searching for his bicycle, Antonio neglects his morals that he was heavily passionate about in the beginning of the film in order to seek guidance in his search. The seer advises him saying that Antonio will either find his bicycle now or not at all. Her wise words baffle Antonio since it was not the response he desired from the acclaimed fortune teller. Antonio realizes that his window to find his bicycle is beginning to close. The encounter between him and the seer not only ignored his morals, but also diminished his faith in himself. Furthermore, the final scene depicted Antonio ultimately relinquishing his search for the bicycle, as he lost complete faith in finding it. He paced in circles contemplating whether he should hold on to his morality and return home or steal another person’s bicycle. Once again, out of desperation, Antonio steals another man’s bicycle since he lost hope in retrieving his own. He desperately needed to regain faith by way of salvaging any bike he could find. The two occurrences in Antonio’s search emphasize the fact that without the bicycle, Antonio lacks faith and morality.
In the 1948 film, Bicycle Thieves, the reason Antonio stole was that he lost all hope and faith in society. He gave up on being a good man because throughout the movie he realized how much crime and hate there was in the world, such as thieves and mobsters he encountered. The brand name on the Bicycle was fides which meant faith. When he eventually gave up on finding his bike, it also symbolized Antonio's loss of his faithThe bicycle gives Antonio the ability to earn a good living and live a better life. Meaning he can live a better life. Without the bike, Antonio cannot earn a living and provide a better lifestyle for his family. Antonio's job depends on him keeping the bike at his disposal and in good working order. Once the bike has been lost, Antonio feels that he has to go out and steal a bike to compensate for his loss. He exhibits the greatest desire to be a successful man and often becomes crazy in his attempts at the recovery of his bike. The closing statements of this film lead me to believe that Antonio never recovers his bicycle. Therefore, never realized the new life that he had desired so badly. In the final moments of the film, after Antonio has been caught stealing the bicycle, he is set free by the victim who is compelled by not wanting to bother with it because he believes that Antonio has suffered enough by the humiliation of being a bad example for his son. This shows how Antonio lost faith in society and people, Bruno also lost his belief in having a good father.
In the film Bicycle Thieves, Antonio's bike, being named Fides, has a multitude of themes that can relate to the idea of faith. The setting of this movie is Post-WWll Italy, and it shows Antonio as a working-class man. With his bike being stolen, he knows that he cannot afford another bike and possibly lose his job. With that, his faith in a better future with financial stability goes with it. Post-WW2 societies in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, had poor economies. The working class had lost faith in the government's ability to provide decent-paying jobs. People were impoverished and struggling to find food and essential resources for their families right after the war; the faith for economic stability in 1940s Italian society was minute. While a small few had this stability, the overall mood during this time was faithless in the future. More related to Antonio, he has also lost faith in his family and morals. At the beginning of the movie, Antonio does not believe in the Holy Mother and her visions. He did not want his wife to waste money on "pointless things" in his mind. At the end of the film, he goes to the Holy Mother, desperate to find his bike and give up on his ideals. This happens far too often where we give up on what we believe to survive. Some people end up selling drugs not because they believe in it but because they need the money to have food on the table. The desperation of the working class is shown often in this film. We say Antonion's lack of faith progressed more considerably and more severely when his bike was stolen. All in all, Antonio's Fides bike being stolen shows his faith in economic stability, and his morals vanish.
The brand of Antonio’s bicycle, “Fides” translates to Faith. When Antonio first purchases his bike after he sacrifices household items, it represents a way out of poverty. The bike will provide him physical transportation to work to improve his life, but also symbolically, transportation out of poverty. The bike is Antonio’s hope, but when it is stolen from him, it represents the symbolic idea that his faith of achieving a better life is also stolen from him. Through losing his bike, his faith in social and economic mobility, traditional religion, and morality are lost. When Antonio’s bike is stolen, he spends much time looking for the bike, but never finds it. He is at a loss for hope, so in desperate terms, he turns to a fortune teller. The teller explains to him that when looking for his bike, he will either find it immediately, or never. In this case, he never finds his bike, and symbolically never finds his faith in a better life. As the movie continues, Antonio searches for the bike because of the need to keep his job to support his family. Without the bike, Antonio strays from the faith of his morals. He becomes desperate and even tries to steal someone else’s bike because of his loss of faith. The filmmaker is trying to argue that it is hard for those living in poverty in this time period to have and maintain their faith to find a better life. Although Antonio is able to buy the bike, he has to sacrifice household items to do so. When the bike is stolen, it represents that those who are born into poverty are oppressed and may find faith at a specific time in their lives, but ultimately have no way to hold onto it.
In the film Bicycle Thieves, the brand name of Antonio’s bike means faith in Latin, and this symbolizes his faith in his abilities to find his bike. Overall, the bike is a metaphorical vehicle for Antonio’s ability to work his way out of poverty. In an idealistic world, he would’ve found his bike, yet in this neo-realist film he does not. Antonio represents the common inhabitant of post-war Italy which makes this a relatable story to many. The bike is unattainable to Antonio. This film is trying to get the message across that for many there is no way out of poverty. The presence of the word faith represents the faith of the common man to be able to find a way out of poverty or the faith in the system that keeps them impoverished. Antonio’s search for his bike drives the entire plot. Bicycle Thieves is a testament to the working class and their struggles. There is also something to be said about the ever-presence of bicycles in the film. It seems as if though everyone has their own bike or is maybe looking for their own metaphorical bike, and such is true in real life; a lot of people are looking for their own personal metaphorical bike. The setting of the film includes many stone constructed buildings inhabited by many people, alleys, and marketplaces. This backdrop was strategically chosen to fall into the theme of how this movie was meant to represent a common situation for many, and they made it so generic everyone could relate to Antonio’s life.
In the 1948 film, Bicycle Thieves, the robbery of Antonio Ricci’s bicycle is a crucial moment in the film because it not only initiates the main conflict of the movie, but, more importantly, it implies an abrupt shift in the values of the main character and in his future prospects. Considering that the brand of the main character’s bicycle is “Fides,” which in Latin translates to “Faith,” one could say that when Ricci loses his bike, he consequently loses his faith, both in the “system” and in God. Firstly, at the beginning of the film, the main character’s bike is his ticket to a better life, for it allows him to be employed as a poster installer at a time when jobs are scarce and poverty is rampant. The bicycle, therefore, is a symbol of wealth, and it provides him with a glimmer of hope to possibly climb up the social ladder one day. In other words, the bicycle not only provides him with actual mobility, but also the potential for social mobility as well. As a result, when that bicycle is stolen from him, his faith in the social system, or his hope for a more prosperous future, comes tumbling down. Additionally, looking at the symbolism from a religious angle, it is not far-fetched to say that this unfortunate event also robs Ricci of whatever faith in God he has at the beginning of the film. Seeing as Antonio Ricci is the representation of the typical Italian citizen during the post-WWII era, it is very likely that he and his family are followers of the Roman Catholic religion. As such, the first thing that one would expect our main character to do when his bicycle is stolen is to pray for the return of his bike (and therefore the return of his prosperous future). However, our main character never does anything of the like. In fact, the only time we see Antonio Ricci go to church after his bicycle is stolen is during his pursuit of the old man. And even then, once inside the church, he is irreverent and pays no mind to the Mass taking place. He continues pestering the alleged thief, when, in reality, it might have behooved him to kneel down and pray to God instead. Therefore, when Antonio Ricci loses his Fides bicycle, it leaves him both prospectively and spiritually faithless.
When Antonio loses his bike he's not just losing a bike, he is losing his future and his hope. That's what the bike means to him. Without his bike he cant get to his new job which is hard to come by because the times are so tough. That's why he becomes desperate enough to steal a bike of his own. Antonio slowly realizes he will never get justice or his bike back and him and his family are going to suffer now because he cant keep his job without the bike. The bike being named faith symbolizes that the bike represents faith in a future for Antonio and when he loses the bike Antonio loses his faith. But Antonio doesn't just lose his faith in the future he loses his faith in justice and even possibly god. Being that the time is set as post WWII the time was tough in Italy and many surrounding country's who were still recovering from the war. At the beginning of the movie we can see dozens of people all lined up begging for a job for the day from someone we don't know and the scene makes it clear that the economic climate in the area is not doing well. Overall, the bike symbolizes Antonio's future and when that's taken away from him without justice it causes Antonio to do the exact thing that took his life away.
The 1948 neo-realist film Bicycle Thieves, aka Ladri di biciclette, tells the story of a lower class family living in a post-WWII Italy. The narrative follows Antonio Ricci and his son Bruno as they chase a thief around Rome in search of their stolen bike. However, the bike that they chase is actually a symbol for numerous major themes that repeatedly occur throughout the film. The model of the bike, “Fides”, translates from Latin to faith, which will be further discussed later. First, the most notable symbol is the metaphor for the bike itself, which is the object that is supposed to help lead Antonio and his family to a better life through his new position of putting up posters around the city. Once he loses his bike, he quite literally loses the vehicle that will transport him to a higher quality of life. However, he also loses his “fides” in his ability to relocate his bike and succeed for the sake of his family. One can also argue that he loses his faith in not only the goal of catching the thief and reclaiming his bike, but also in major institutions like Italian government systems and the police department. For example, he eventually stops seeking assistance from the government system that supplies people with job opportunities, which is supported by the final scene in which he resorts to stealing someone else’s bike instead of searching for another job or talking to the agency, instead ultimately becoming his own nemesis. Moreover, Antonio loses faith in the authorities after the market scene in which he does not receive the assistance he needs to find his bike, and they take no additional steps to help catch the thief. Over the course of the film, he reduces his interactions with police in the process of locating his bike, signifying the loss of faith and value in the authorities in general. Antonio’s sentiments surely are common and understood by the impoverished people of Italy after WWII, as his experience is not one of a kind and is one that is shared among the lower class all around the world.
The Italian film Bicycle Thieves, follows the story of the protagonist, Antonio, as he tries to find his lost bike. His bike happens to be of the brand “Fides”, which means “faith” in Latin. This connection is an implication that along with his bike, Antonio loses faith in being able to climb the social ladder in a legitimate way. The bike is a symbol of connecting the lower and upper classes, and is quite literally the direct way Antonio can get into a higher social class. We can see this when he first gets his job, and the person handing out jobs tells him that he needs a bike in order to get the job. For Antonio, this opportunity to make money means possibly moving up the social ladder and getting a better life for him and his family, and the bike is an essential part of this plan. When he takes his son to a restaurant, he lays out calculations of how much money he would be able to make with the job. He clearly has thought a lot about the money he’s earning from the job, and about how long it’ll take for him to be able to eat in restaurants more often like people from the higher class. When his bike gets stolen, he can’t do his job anymore, leaving him desperate to find it again as it was his way of getting more money, and his only chance at moving up the social ladder. He’s hopeless and loses faith in his ability to change social classes legitimately, and ends up trying to steal a bike for that chance at a better life.
In the film Bicycle Thieves, the bike signifies the link between Antonio as an individual in distress against a collective of people. Antonio is alone and quickly outnumbered when he steals a bicycle. Throughout the movie, however, Antonio is outnumbered. For instance, when a room full of cops ignores his problem; the worthless speeches, show, and recommendations at the union hall. Also, the countless flea market vendors; the flea markets themselves, which contain hundreds of bicycles and bicycle parts in contrast to the one Antonio desires. Finally, he transforms into the "bicycle thief." "Fides," the company’s brand name, is Latin for faith or trust. The acts of various characters in Bicycle Thieves are based on spirituality and faith. Although it is not entirely separate from religion, spirituality is primarily represented by the seer in the film. Antonio meets the seer despite dismissing her earlier in the film due to his dependence on blind faith. Antonio is eager for some authority figure to offer him guidance and hope after receiving little support on his hunt to retrieve his bike. Antonio's instruction from the seer is straightforward. Antonio's perseverance to reclaim his bicycle is rejuvenated as a result of this breakthrough, implying that putting one's faith in spirituality has some true power. Antonio's capacity to making a living and a have a better life is enhanced by his bicycle, which improves his social status. Antonio will be unable to earn a living and offer a significantly better lifestyle for his family if he does not have access to a bike. His job depends on him having the bike in good condition and at his convenience. After the bike is stolen, Antonio feels compelled to go out and steal another bike to make up for his loss.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1948 film, "Bicycle Thieves", Antonio Ricci’s stolen bicycle symbolizes his declining faith in himself and his morals. The director, Vittorio De Sica purposely named the brand of the bicycle “Fides”, which in Latin translates to faith, since Antonio desperately needed the bicycle to have faith that he will provide for his family. Metaphorically, Antonio is searching for faith by attempting to recover his essential bike. As the movie progresses, Antonio loses faith in trying to retrieve his lost bicycle since multiple people discourage him from continuing his journey. The first sign of Antonio’s desperation and decline in morality is depicted in the seer scene. In the beginning of the movie, Antonio scolds his wife for wasting their money on a “fortune teller” that allegedly will predict a person’s future. However, after a long day of searching for his bicycle, Antonio neglects his morals that he was heavily passionate about in the beginning of the film in order to seek guidance in his search. The seer advises him saying that Antonio will either find his bicycle now or not at all. Her wise words baffle Antonio since it was not the response he desired from the acclaimed fortune teller. Antonio realizes that his window to find his bicycle is beginning to close. The encounter between him and the seer not only ignored his morals, but also diminished his faith in himself. Furthermore, the final scene depicted Antonio ultimately relinquishing his search for the bicycle, as he lost complete faith in finding it. He paced in circles contemplating whether he should hold on to his morality and return home or steal another person’s bicycle. Once again, out of desperation, Antonio steals another man’s bicycle since he lost hope in retrieving his own. He desperately needed to regain faith by way of salvaging any bike he could find. The two occurrences in Antonio’s search emphasize the fact that without the bicycle, Antonio lacks faith and morality.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1948 film, Bicycle Thieves, the reason Antonio stole was that he lost all hope and faith in society. He gave up on being a good man because throughout the movie he realized how much crime and hate there was in the world, such as thieves and mobsters he encountered. The brand name on the Bicycle was fides which meant faith. When he eventually gave up on finding his bike, it also symbolized Antonio's loss of his faithThe bicycle gives Antonio the ability to earn a good living and live a better life. Meaning he can live a better life. Without the bike, Antonio cannot earn a living and provide a better lifestyle for his family. Antonio's job depends on him keeping the bike at his disposal and in good working order. Once the bike has been lost, Antonio feels that he has to go out and steal a bike to compensate for his loss. He exhibits the greatest desire to be a successful man and often becomes crazy in his attempts at the recovery of his bike. The closing statements of this film lead me to believe that Antonio never recovers his bicycle. Therefore, never realized the new life that he had desired so badly. In the final moments of the film, after Antonio has been caught stealing the bicycle, he is set free by the victim who is compelled by not wanting to bother with it because he believes that Antonio has suffered enough by the humiliation of being a bad example for his son. This shows how Antonio lost faith in society and people, Bruno also lost his belief in having a good father.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteIn the film Bicycle Thieves, Antonio's bike, being named Fides, has a multitude of themes that can relate to the idea of faith. The setting of this movie is Post-WWll Italy, and it shows Antonio as a working-class man. With his bike being stolen, he knows that he cannot afford another bike and possibly lose his job. With that, his faith in a better future with financial stability goes with it. Post-WW2 societies in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, had poor economies. The working class had lost faith in the government's ability to provide decent-paying jobs. People were impoverished and struggling to find food and essential resources for their families right after the war; the faith for economic stability in 1940s Italian society was minute. While a small few had this stability, the overall mood during this time was faithless in the future. More related to Antonio, he has also lost faith in his family and morals. At the beginning of the movie, Antonio does not believe in the Holy Mother and her visions. He did not want his wife to waste money on "pointless things" in his mind. At the end of the film, he goes to the Holy Mother, desperate to find his bike and give up on his ideals. This happens far too often where we give up on what we believe to survive. Some people end up selling drugs not because they believe in it but because they need the money to have food on the table. The desperation of the working class is shown often in this film. We say Antonion's lack of faith progressed more considerably and more severely when his bike was stolen. All in all, Antonio's Fides bike being stolen shows his faith in economic stability, and his morals vanish.
The brand of Antonio’s bicycle, “Fides” translates to Faith. When Antonio first purchases his bike after he sacrifices household items, it represents a way out of poverty. The bike will provide him physical transportation to work to improve his life, but also symbolically, transportation out of poverty. The bike is Antonio’s hope, but when it is stolen from him, it represents the symbolic idea that his faith of achieving a better life is also stolen from him. Through losing his bike, his faith in social and economic mobility, traditional religion, and morality are lost. When Antonio’s bike is stolen, he spends much time looking for the bike, but never finds it. He is at a loss for hope, so in desperate terms, he turns to a fortune teller. The teller explains to him that when looking for his bike, he will either find it immediately, or never. In this case, he never finds his bike, and symbolically never finds his faith in a better life. As the movie continues, Antonio searches for the bike because of the need to keep his job to support his family. Without the bike, Antonio strays from the faith of his morals. He becomes desperate and even tries to steal someone else’s bike because of his loss of faith. The filmmaker is trying to argue that it is hard for those living in poverty in this time period to have and maintain their faith to find a better life. Although Antonio is able to buy the bike, he has to sacrifice household items to do so. When the bike is stolen, it represents that those who are born into poverty are oppressed and may find faith at a specific time in their lives, but ultimately have no way to hold onto it.
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ReplyDeleteIn the film Bicycle Thieves, the brand name of Antonio’s bike means faith in Latin, and this symbolizes his faith in his abilities to find his bike. Overall, the bike is a metaphorical vehicle for Antonio’s ability to work his way out of poverty. In an idealistic world, he would’ve found his bike, yet in this neo-realist film he does not. Antonio represents the common inhabitant of post-war Italy which makes this a relatable story to many. The bike is unattainable to Antonio. This film is trying to get the message across that for many there is no way out of poverty. The presence of the word faith represents the faith of the common man to be able to find a way out of poverty or the faith in the system that keeps them impoverished. Antonio’s search for his bike drives the entire plot. Bicycle Thieves is a testament to the working class and their struggles. There is also something to be said about the ever-presence of bicycles in the film. It seems as if though everyone has their own bike or is maybe looking for their own metaphorical bike, and such is true in real life; a lot of people are looking for their own personal metaphorical bike. The setting of the film includes many stone constructed buildings inhabited by many people, alleys, and marketplaces. This backdrop was strategically chosen to fall into the theme of how this movie was meant to represent a common situation for many, and they made it so generic everyone could relate to Antonio’s life.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1948 film, Bicycle Thieves, the robbery of Antonio Ricci’s bicycle is a crucial moment in the film because it not only initiates the main conflict of the movie, but, more importantly, it implies an abrupt shift in the values of the main character and in his future prospects. Considering that the brand of the main character’s bicycle is “Fides,” which in Latin translates to “Faith,” one could say that when Ricci loses his bike, he consequently loses his faith, both in the “system” and in God. Firstly, at the beginning of the film, the main character’s bike is his ticket to a better life, for it allows him to be employed as a poster installer at a time when jobs are scarce and poverty is rampant. The bicycle, therefore, is a symbol of wealth, and it provides him with a glimmer of hope to possibly climb up the social ladder one day. In other words, the bicycle not only provides him with actual mobility, but also the potential for social mobility as well. As a result, when that bicycle is stolen from him, his faith in the social system, or his hope for a more prosperous future, comes tumbling down. Additionally, looking at the symbolism from a religious angle, it is not far-fetched to say that this unfortunate event also robs Ricci of whatever faith in God he has at the beginning of the film. Seeing as Antonio Ricci is the representation of the typical Italian citizen during the post-WWII era, it is very likely that he and his family are followers of the Roman Catholic religion. As such, the first thing that one would expect our main character to do when his bicycle is stolen is to pray for the return of his bike (and therefore the return of his prosperous future). However, our main character never does anything of the like. In fact, the only time we see Antonio Ricci go to church after his bicycle is stolen is during his pursuit of the old man. And even then, once inside the church, he is irreverent and pays no mind to the Mass taking place. He continues pestering the alleged thief, when, in reality, it might have behooved him to kneel down and pray to God instead. Therefore, when Antonio Ricci loses his Fides bicycle, it leaves him both prospectively and spiritually faithless.
ReplyDeleteWhen Antonio loses his bike he's not just losing a bike, he is losing his future and his hope. That's what the bike means to him. Without his bike he cant get to his new job which is hard to come by because the times are so tough. That's why he becomes desperate enough to steal a bike of his own. Antonio slowly realizes he will never get justice or his bike back and him and his family are going to suffer now because he cant keep his job without the bike. The bike being named faith symbolizes that the bike represents faith in a future for Antonio and when he loses the bike Antonio loses his faith. But Antonio doesn't just lose his faith in the future he loses his faith in justice and even possibly god. Being that the time is set as post WWII the time was tough in Italy and many surrounding country's who were still recovering from the war. At the beginning of the movie we can see dozens of people all lined up begging for a job for the day from someone we don't know and the scene makes it clear that the economic climate in the area is not doing well. Overall, the bike symbolizes Antonio's future and when that's taken away from him without justice it causes Antonio to do the exact thing that took his life away.
ReplyDeleteThe 1948 neo-realist film Bicycle Thieves, aka Ladri di biciclette, tells the story of a lower class family living in a post-WWII Italy. The narrative follows Antonio Ricci and his son Bruno as they chase a thief around Rome in search of their stolen bike. However, the bike that they chase is actually a symbol for numerous major themes that repeatedly occur throughout the film. The model of the bike, “Fides”, translates from Latin to faith, which will be further discussed later. First, the most notable symbol is the metaphor for the bike itself, which is the object that is supposed to help lead Antonio and his family to a better life through his new position of putting up posters around the city. Once he loses his bike, he quite literally loses the vehicle that will transport him to a higher quality of life. However, he also loses his “fides” in his ability to relocate his bike and succeed for the sake of his family. One can also argue that he loses his faith in not only the goal of catching the thief and reclaiming his bike, but also in major institutions like Italian government systems and the police department. For example, he eventually stops seeking assistance from the government system that supplies people with job opportunities, which is supported by the final scene in which he resorts to stealing someone else’s bike instead of searching for another job or talking to the agency, instead ultimately becoming his own nemesis. Moreover, Antonio loses faith in the authorities after the market scene in which he does not receive the assistance he needs to find his bike, and they take no additional steps to help catch the thief. Over the course of the film, he reduces his interactions with police in the process of locating his bike, signifying the loss of faith and value in the authorities in general. Antonio’s sentiments surely are common and understood by the impoverished people of Italy after WWII, as his experience is not one of a kind and is one that is shared among the lower class all around the world.
ReplyDeleteThe Italian film Bicycle Thieves, follows the story of the protagonist, Antonio, as he tries to find his lost bike. His bike happens to be of the brand “Fides”, which means “faith” in Latin. This connection is an implication that along with his bike, Antonio loses faith in being able to climb the social ladder in a legitimate way. The bike is a symbol of connecting the lower and upper classes, and is quite literally the direct way Antonio can get into a higher social class. We can see this when he first gets his job, and the person handing out jobs tells him that he needs a bike in order to get the job. For Antonio, this opportunity to make money means possibly moving up the social ladder and getting a better life for him and his family, and the bike is an essential part of this plan. When he takes his son to a restaurant, he lays out calculations of how much money he would be able to make with the job. He clearly has thought a lot about the money he’s earning from the job, and about how long it’ll take for him to be able to eat in restaurants more often like people from the higher class. When his bike gets stolen, he can’t do his job anymore, leaving him desperate to find it again as it was his way of getting more money, and his only chance at moving up the social ladder. He’s hopeless and loses faith in his ability to change social classes legitimately, and ends up trying to steal a bike for that chance at a better life.
ReplyDelete