For the past two weeks, the focus of LBST-1102-H71 has been on Italian Neorealism, a style of film designed to show the viewer what it is actually like to live in the time it was set in. Bicycle Thieves (1948) by Vittorio De Sica is set in the Italian city of Rome after World War II. Central Station (1998) by Walter Salles is set in the Brazilian city of Rio during an economic meltdown. Both films are based around the idea that poverty is a problem that could easily be fixed by sharing the wealth. Many principles of Italian Neorealism are used in both Central Station and Bicycle Thieves.
The first major element that is in both Central Station and Bicycle Thieves is that “Children are important to the story, they suffer – often observers of adults and events unfolding.” In Bicycle Thieves, the little boy named Bruno followed his father around for a majority of the film while his father searched for his stolen bicycle. Throughout many scenes, Bruno was harassed by an old man, hit in a church, got lost and fell many times. His father Antonio noticed very little of this because he was busy trying to find his bike. In the station, Josue has to overcome his mother’s death while trying to survive in Rio…show more content… While Dora is writing the letter for Josue’s father, the boy is playing with the dark wooden top. Dora tries to stop him repeatedly, but he keeps playing persistently. Josue’s top symbolizes his quest to find his father because it triggers his mother’s death. He does not know it at the time, but his father Jesus, who was a carpenter, made the wooden top for Josue. The top does not appear much in the film until the end when Josue meets his two brothers, Moises and Isaias. Moises, who has become a better carpenter that Jesus, makes a wooden top for Josue. This is the moment that Josue knows that his quest is finished because he knows that the two boys really are his family and he can