Narratology In Ladri di biciclette
THEORETICAL APPLICATIONS: NARRATOLOGY, MARXISM, SEMIOTICS, ETC.
Film as Film:
- In this film, the plot follows the same chronological order of the story, that is a poor man searching the streets of Rome for his stolen bicycle, which he needs to be able to work.
Institutional Mode of Representation (IMR) Noel Burch – plot pretends to be story.
- The IMR is characterized by the attempt to create an entirely closed fictional world on screen. The audience is completely imaginatively involved in the film, instead of being distant from it and seeing it as an object to be examined.
Reading & understanding of image/film (Monaco)
physiologically-good saccadic patterns
ethnographically-know culture (history, customs, myths, etc.)
- This film came out after Mussolini’s era of fascist censorship to offer a portrait of Italy’s post-World War II economic grind. Also, it is the time when Marshall Plan started. It may makes us feel better to think that the protagonist is going to benefit from Marshall Plan and find a nice job later.
- The techniques employed in the mise en scene likewise meet the most exacting specification of Italian neorealism. Not one scene shot in a studio. Everything was filmed in the streets. As for the actors, none had the slightest experience in theater or film. The workman came from the Breda factory, the child was found hanging around in the street, the wife was a journalist (these information also considered as Profilmic Qualifiers).
Qualifiers: Four things to focus on when thinking about film:
1 Profilmic Qualifiers = mise en scène= the selection, arrangement, and manipulation of things (clothing, make-up, etc) and people to be filmed.
- The film unfolds on the level of pure accident: the rain, the seminarians, the Catholic Quakers, the restaurant, etc. All these are seemingly interchangeable and no one seems to have arranged them in order on a dramatic spectrum- the fabulous thing about neo-realism.
- Vittorio De Sica utilizes costumes in reflecting the financial hardship of lower class Rome. The element of costuming serves as a reflection of economic adversity quite visibly through the change in the state of Antonio Ricci’s clothes as the film progresses. Antonio exchanges his sheets for a bicycle and meets with his supervisor wearing a suit that, although far from luxurious, makes him appear decently presentable.
- Is there any make-ups? One thing we can be sure of is the actors all have documentary-like appearances, even though they may be achieved by contrived means.
Four more ways to think about film: “Rapports de production” (Monaco). These obviously frequently overlap.
- Sociopolitical- Bicycle Thieves was seen as a Marxist fable at the time it was released (Zavattini was a member of the Italian Communist Party). Bazin also considered this film as “the only valid Communist film of the whole past decade” [i.e. the 1940s], De Sica himself stressed the non-political nature of this film: “If with the excuse of neorealism one wanted to make political propaganda, these would be the first film I personally would refuse to have anything to do with. Propaganda would be left to the newspapers, posters, and election speakers.”
- Technical- Some argue that although concerned with content, neorealist filmmakers are compulsive formalists. In the case of Bicycle Thieves, the sophisticated neorealist style as well as the plot are both attractive, and made this film a neorealist milestone.
- Economic- De Sica struggled to raise the capital for The Bicycle Thief. American producer David O. Selznick expressed a desire to supply the funding--on the condition that Cary Grant be cast as the lead! Eventually, the budget was raised from several Italian sources, and the film was appropriately cast (the economic situation within the film, see Cultural Considerations).
Marxist alienation:
- Some critics claim that Antonio, who is clearly shown as living in squalor, is a member of the bourgeoisie, simply because he wears a fedora, not a cap, or because his wife has clean bedsheets, thus when he gets a job, it is symbolic of governmental favoritism for an elite class, and the young bike thief, who wears a German hat, is a member of the international proletariat, although he clearly is a member of the criminal class, and in that conflation much of Marxist theology bogs down. The theft of Antonio’s bike is therefore claimed as a revolutionary act, and his lying neighbors are just good workers defending a comrade. That Antonio is left bereft, at film’s end, to Marxists, symbolizes a perverse justice.
- Interestingly, the film has also been seen as a very Conservative film and praised by Christian groups, not because it delineates good and evil, as described above, but because they see it as a refutation of Marxist ideals, in that Antonio and the other laborers do not find work degrading, but a fundament of their self worth; so much so that when the young thief kyboshes Antonio’s ability to gain that self respect, he loses all hope, and is reduced to dishonesty himself. (http://www.cosmoetica.com/B392-DES330.htm)
Existential alienation:
- Usually, the goal of the film is not the end, but the means; a more personal journey or experience that engages the viewer’s intellect. These traits may be due in part to a propensity toward deeper and more universal themes: a questioning of god or faith, philosophical debates including the contemporary ideas of existentialism and absurdism, perhaps reflecting the sentiments of a postwar society.
- Bicycle Thieves demonstrate a lack of cause-and-effect as impetus for the story (the only cause and effect relationship in the film is that Antonio’s bike is stolen, thus he searches for it. Individual events or episodes of his search do not always follow one another directly or logically. For instance De Sica chooses to include a scene in which it starts to rain and Antonio and Bruno must pause their search, although there is no apparent reason for this scene, except the fact that sometimes it rains at inconvenient times in real life); the absence of a linear narrative in the sense of having a beginning, middle, end (Andre Bazin agrees, the film “give[s] the succession of events the appearance of an accidental and as it were anecdotal integrity”); the question of one’s moral beliefs or a leaning toward the existential or absurd.
- Existentialism “stresses that people are entirely free and therefore responsible for what they make of themselves. With this responsibility comes a profound anguish or dread.” In this case, Antonio’s depressing searching procedure and mental process demonstrate existentialism cruelly well.
(http://modestblacksmith.blogspot.com/2011/02/bicycle-thieves-seventh-seal-rashomon.html)
Oedipal alienation:
- Bruno admired his father, imitated him. But during the searching procedure he and his father begin to have a further physical&psychological distance. Although he gives his hand to Antonio at the end of the film, the child-parent relationship obviously gets to the next stage.
Cultural/social alienation:
- The film gives us a sense of Antonio struggling in a hostile society; he never gets help, even when he goes to the holly woman, the contrast between the woman’s ridiculous lines and his exhausted, dazed facial expression demonstrates the helplessness;
- Sorlin(1991) points out that Antonio and his wife and son are a 'nuclear family' with no local relations and few friends. This supports the view that Antonio may be an immigrant. He is clearly uneasy venturing into central Rome and is unable to break down the solidarity of the community which protects the thieves. Theft is a 'profession' in the society, but the thieves need to prey on 'outsiders' like Antonio. He, by contrast is an 'amateur' when he tries to steal a bicycle himself. (http://itpworld.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/bicycle-thieves-ladri-di-biciclette-italy-1948/)
Self-referentiality/[self-]reflexivity
- The sequence involving the inevitable theft of the bicycle is a piece of pacing genius, with the lead up to it being mischievous and self referential. This tense attitude returns several times, with the drowning boy scene being a particular standout, as well as the sequence involving Antonio accuses the thief and the scene in which he himself steals the bicycle. This scene in particular, with its orchestra of crowds cheering, as if to beckon Antonio, is especially strong. (http://hopelies.com/2009/06/04/the-bicycle-thieves-1948/)
SEMIOTICS/SEMIOLOGY
Semiotics (Peirce):
Representamen = Sign vehicle: the form of the sign;
Interpretant = Sense: the sense made of the sign;
Object = Referent: what the sign 'stands for'.
- The documentary-like appearance of the actors and the costumes reflect the financial hardship of lower class Rome (some argues that Antonio is a member of the bourgeoisie, because he wears a fedora, not a cap; when he gets a job, it is symbolic of governmental favoritism for an elite class).
- Also, there are obvious symbols of the depravity of the rich: the upper-class man blowing bubbles; in the flea market followed by the upper-class pedophile who tries to pick up Bruno. There is the nasty little rich boy in the restaurant with his fancy dessert looking over at Bruno, the poor boy with no dessert. There are the rich people dispensing charity at the church, another crowd interfering with Antonio’s desperate search. Just before Antonio’s thieving, fancy cars almost run down Bruno. (http://www.asharperfocus.com/bicycle.html)
- In the final scene when Bruno give his hand to Antonio: this experience marks henceforth a definite stage in the relations between father and son, rather like reaching puberty. Up to that moment the man has been like a god to his son; their relations come under the heading of admiration. By his action the father has now compromised them. But the son returns to a father who has fallen from grace. He will love him henceforth as a human being, shame and all. The hands that slips into his is neither a symbol of forgiveness nor of a childish act of consolation. It is rather the most solemn gesture that could ever mark the relations between a father and his son: one that makes them equals. (http://kit.kein.org/node/366)
- The bicycle brand name "Fides" means faith or trust in Latin. This symbolic reference along with family relations may reflect notions of optimism felt in Italy during the rough postwar era. However, they come close to it once, but the bike--a symbol of hope--remains elusive. Finally, Antonio himself becomes a bicycle thief--but an unsuccessful one. (http://www.directessays.com/viewpaper/30725.html)
Film as Film:
- In this film, the plot follows the same chronological order of the story, that is a poor man searching the streets of Rome for his stolen bicycle, which he needs to be able to work.
Institutional Mode of Representation (IMR) Noel Burch – plot pretends to be story.
- The IMR is characterized by the attempt to create an entirely closed fictional world on screen. The audience is completely imaginatively involved in the film, instead of being distant from it and seeing it as an object to be examined.
Reading & understanding of image/film (Monaco)
physiologically-good saccadic patterns
ethnographically-know culture (history, customs, myths, etc.)
- This film came out after Mussolini’s era of fascist censorship to offer a portrait of Italy’s post-World War II economic grind. Also, it is the time when Marshall Plan started. It may makes us feel better to think that the protagonist is going to benefit from Marshall Plan and find a nice job later.
- The techniques employed in the mise en scene likewise meet the most exacting specification of Italian neorealism. Not one scene shot in a studio. Everything was filmed in the streets. As for the actors, none had the slightest experience in theater or film. The workman came from the Breda factory, the child was found hanging around in the street, the wife was a journalist (these information also considered as Profilmic Qualifiers).
Qualifiers: Four things to focus on when thinking about film:
1 Profilmic Qualifiers = mise en scène= the selection, arrangement, and manipulation of things (clothing, make-up, etc) and people to be filmed.
- The film unfolds on the level of pure accident: the rain, the seminarians, the Catholic Quakers, the restaurant, etc. All these are seemingly interchangeable and no one seems to have arranged them in order on a dramatic spectrum- the fabulous thing about neo-realism.
- Vittorio De Sica utilizes costumes in reflecting the financial hardship of lower class Rome. The element of costuming serves as a reflection of economic adversity quite visibly through the change in the state of Antonio Ricci’s clothes as the film progresses. Antonio exchanges his sheets for a bicycle and meets with his supervisor wearing a suit that, although far from luxurious, makes him appear decently presentable.
- Is there any make-ups? One thing we can be sure of is the actors all have documentary-like appearances, even though they may be achieved by contrived means.
Four more ways to think about film: “Rapports de production” (Monaco). These obviously frequently overlap.
- Sociopolitical- Bicycle Thieves was seen as a Marxist fable at the time it was released (Zavattini was a member of the Italian Communist Party). Bazin also considered this film as “the only valid Communist film of the whole past decade” [i.e. the 1940s], De Sica himself stressed the non-political nature of this film: “If with the excuse of neorealism one wanted to make political propaganda, these would be the first film I personally would refuse to have anything to do with. Propaganda would be left to the newspapers, posters, and election speakers.”
- Technical- Some argue that although concerned with content, neorealist filmmakers are compulsive formalists. In the case of Bicycle Thieves, the sophisticated neorealist style as well as the plot are both attractive, and made this film a neorealist milestone.
- Economic- De Sica struggled to raise the capital for The Bicycle Thief. American producer David O. Selznick expressed a desire to supply the funding--on the condition that Cary Grant be cast as the lead! Eventually, the budget was raised from several Italian sources, and the film was appropriately cast (the economic situation within the film, see Cultural Considerations).
Marxist alienation:
- Some critics claim that Antonio, who is clearly shown as living in squalor, is a member of the bourgeoisie, simply because he wears a fedora, not a cap, or because his wife has clean bedsheets, thus when he gets a job, it is symbolic of governmental favoritism for an elite class, and the young bike thief, who wears a German hat, is a member of the international proletariat, although he clearly is a member of the criminal class, and in that conflation much of Marxist theology bogs down. The theft of Antonio’s bike is therefore claimed as a revolutionary act, and his lying neighbors are just good workers defending a comrade. That Antonio is left bereft, at film’s end, to Marxists, symbolizes a perverse justice.
- Interestingly, the film has also been seen as a very Conservative film and praised by Christian groups, not because it delineates good and evil, as described above, but because they see it as a refutation of Marxist ideals, in that Antonio and the other laborers do not find work degrading, but a fundament of their self worth; so much so that when the young thief kyboshes Antonio’s ability to gain that self respect, he loses all hope, and is reduced to dishonesty himself. (http://www.cosmoetica.com/B392-DES330.htm)
Existential alienation:
- Usually, the goal of the film is not the end, but the means; a more personal journey or experience that engages the viewer’s intellect. These traits may be due in part to a propensity toward deeper and more universal themes: a questioning of god or faith, philosophical debates including the contemporary ideas of existentialism and absurdism, perhaps reflecting the sentiments of a postwar society.
- Bicycle Thieves demonstrate a lack of cause-and-effect as impetus for the story (the only cause and effect relationship in the film is that Antonio’s bike is stolen, thus he searches for it. Individual events or episodes of his search do not always follow one another directly or logically. For instance De Sica chooses to include a scene in which it starts to rain and Antonio and Bruno must pause their search, although there is no apparent reason for this scene, except the fact that sometimes it rains at inconvenient times in real life); the absence of a linear narrative in the sense of having a beginning, middle, end (Andre Bazin agrees, the film “give[s] the succession of events the appearance of an accidental and as it were anecdotal integrity”); the question of one’s moral beliefs or a leaning toward the existential or absurd.
- Existentialism “stresses that people are entirely free and therefore responsible for what they make of themselves. With this responsibility comes a profound anguish or dread.” In this case, Antonio’s depressing searching procedure and mental process demonstrate existentialism cruelly well.
(http://modestblacksmith.blogspot.com/2011/02/bicycle-thieves-seventh-seal-rashomon.html)
Oedipal alienation:
- Bruno admired his father, imitated him. But during the searching procedure he and his father begin to have a further physical&psychological distance. Although he gives his hand to Antonio at the end of the film, the child-parent relationship obviously gets to the next stage.
Cultural/social alienation:
- The film gives us a sense of Antonio struggling in a hostile society; he never gets help, even when he goes to the holly woman, the contrast between the woman’s ridiculous lines and his exhausted, dazed facial expression demonstrates the helplessness;
- Sorlin(1991) points out that Antonio and his wife and son are a 'nuclear family' with no local relations and few friends. This supports the view that Antonio may be an immigrant. He is clearly uneasy venturing into central Rome and is unable to break down the solidarity of the community which protects the thieves. Theft is a 'profession' in the society, but the thieves need to prey on 'outsiders' like Antonio. He, by contrast is an 'amateur' when he tries to steal a bicycle himself. (http://itpworld.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/bicycle-thieves-ladri-di-biciclette-italy-1948/)
Self-referentiality/[self-]reflexivity
- The sequence involving the inevitable theft of the bicycle is a piece of pacing genius, with the lead up to it being mischievous and self referential. This tense attitude returns several times, with the drowning boy scene being a particular standout, as well as the sequence involving Antonio accuses the thief and the scene in which he himself steals the bicycle. This scene in particular, with its orchestra of crowds cheering, as if to beckon Antonio, is especially strong. (http://hopelies.com/2009/06/04/the-bicycle-thieves-1948/)
SEMIOTICS/SEMIOLOGY
Semiotics (Peirce):
Representamen = Sign vehicle: the form of the sign;
Interpretant = Sense: the sense made of the sign;
Object = Referent: what the sign 'stands for'.
- The documentary-like appearance of the actors and the costumes reflect the financial hardship of lower class Rome (some argues that Antonio is a member of the bourgeoisie, because he wears a fedora, not a cap; when he gets a job, it is symbolic of governmental favoritism for an elite class).
- Also, there are obvious symbols of the depravity of the rich: the upper-class man blowing bubbles; in the flea market followed by the upper-class pedophile who tries to pick up Bruno. There is the nasty little rich boy in the restaurant with his fancy dessert looking over at Bruno, the poor boy with no dessert. There are the rich people dispensing charity at the church, another crowd interfering with Antonio’s desperate search. Just before Antonio’s thieving, fancy cars almost run down Bruno. (http://www.asharperfocus.com/bicycle.html)
- In the final scene when Bruno give his hand to Antonio: this experience marks henceforth a definite stage in the relations between father and son, rather like reaching puberty. Up to that moment the man has been like a god to his son; their relations come under the heading of admiration. By his action the father has now compromised them. But the son returns to a father who has fallen from grace. He will love him henceforth as a human being, shame and all. The hands that slips into his is neither a symbol of forgiveness nor of a childish act of consolation. It is rather the most solemn gesture that could ever mark the relations between a father and his son: one that makes them equals. (http://kit.kein.org/node/366)
- The bicycle brand name "Fides" means faith or trust in Latin. This symbolic reference along with family relations may reflect notions of optimism felt in Italy during the rough postwar era. However, they come close to it once, but the bike--a symbol of hope--remains elusive. Finally, Antonio himself becomes a bicycle thief--but an unsuccessful one. (http://www.directessays.com/viewpaper/30725.html)
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