In the interests of completing my ever-growing backlog, I decided to post ‘drabble reviews’ of some films. For those unfamiliar with the concept, a drabble is a complete piece of writing exactly 100 words long.

The victor of Sight & Sound’s inaugural “greatest film” poll (though it’s slipped down the rankings ever since), this is the simple story of a man hunting for his stolen bicycle, which is vital for his job, hard-won in a time of unemployment and poverty.

Bicycle Thieves is deemed “one of the masterpieces of Italian neorealism”, which apparently means it’s without symbolism or allegory. But if it’s nothing other than a “slice of life”… if we’re to garner nothing more than “here is something that happened”… well, is it even more simplistic than it already appears? And is that enough?

Bicycle Thieves was viewed as part of my What Do You Mean You Haven’t Seen…? 12 for 2013 project, which you can read more about here.