Bicycle Thieves (Italian: Ladri di biciclette; originally titled The Bicycle Thief in the United States)[3] is a 1948 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. The film follows the story of a poor father searching post-World War II Rome for his stolen bicycle, without which he will lose the job which was to be the salvation of his young family. <br /> <br />Adapted for the screen by Cesare Zavattini from a novel by Luigi Bartolini, and starring Lamberto Maggiorani as the desperate father and Enzo Staiola as his plucky young son, Bicycle Thieves is widely regarded as a masterpiece of Italian neorealism. It received an Academy Honorary Award in 1950 and, just four years after its release, was deemed the greatest film of all time by Sight & Sound magazine's poll of filmmakers and critics;[4] fifty years later the same poll ranked it sixth among greatest-ever films.[5] It is also one of the top ten among the British Film Institute's list of films you should see by the age of 14.
