Arguably Bicycle Thieves is the best known work of Italian neorealism, if not the most known then we could agree is definitely among the most remarkable next to Roberto Rossellini's Rome Open City (1945), Germany Year Zero (1948), etc. Rossellini is generally credited as the director that established this new and highly influential 'genre' of filmmaking that would endure from the mid 40s until 1950, yet De Sica provides as well a complete representation of neorealism: he shot exclusively on location without relying in any regard with a studio set, hiring non-professional actors and above all tackling the principal themes neorealism ventures itself into: a post-war Italy during economical and political instability due to both the worldwide panorama and the fall of Mussolini's government seen from the perspective of population and the working class.
A major theme presented throughout is the conflict among social classes, those who had the capacity to spend on a single lunch what the poor would spend during one complete week as unemployment was going rampant. De Sica brushes said inequality and the struggle of overcoming poverty through the story of a father sunk in poverty searching for a bicycle he was robbed on a post-World War II Rome, without which he will lose the job he just acquired which served to maintain his wife and children.
Bicycle Thieves offers a perfect establishment of the sociopolitical scenario, themes and plot through its highly effective introduction scene. Roughly two minutes that while through exposition these are established is the subtle visual storytelling what really appends further depth. An aspect that is quite noticeable is the options of shot size the film opens up immediately after the credits role. Generally speaking the composition of a scene goes from bigger sizes to shorter, during the introduction this is especially implemented, generally we would start with an establishing shot (extreme long) to denote location and after it pass to a long, full or medium shot. However De Sica breaks this by opening up at the inverse, meaning we start with a long shot and then jump to the extreme long shot that regularly would be used as an establishing one.
First shot - large shot
Second shot - extreme long shot (establishing shot)
This contrivance generates an immediate attention to detail when viewing the film in an utter visual manner. Notice in the first shot the 'panorama' is a crowd of people with someone standing up high above them, we can draw a line in the middle and the hierarchy will become the most noticeable. This gives an important presence and authoritarian characteristic to this man in a subtle way:
This aspect is enhanced by the geometric composition we find right here. Notice the squares of the wall form a line that goes downwards towards this man, blatantly pointing at him and the ladders point downwards towards the crowd with him standing above. These patterns do both highlight the person and denote his hierarchy, he is highlighted as a person with authority above the masses; we know he is announcing who got the opportunity to be hired for a job, thus we can asume that this man obviously already has a stable job and is exercising such, economically he is already above these men as all of them are unemployed but at the same time he is just another tier of the 'pyramid'. For what we hear is easy to asume he is just another employee with more people above him, this is exactly what the staging indicates.
Right after this we move to an extreme long shot (the second shot indicated before) in which this man is minimized to an imperceptible part of the picture. This alteration of shot sizes already indicate the social and economical inequality the film crudely depicts and criticizes, it denotes that there's people rising up above while others either crave for a work or work by rejecting people the 'privilege' of working for living.
We pass to a pan towards the right to introduce our protagonist, who unaware of the announcement was lying nearby.
Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani) is introduced by being separated of the crowd (something is denoted later on), however is towering that he is quickly blended into it. With a panning in the opposite direction now Antonio is inside the throng.
However soon after the hierarchy from previously is further more deepened while establishing Antonio's thematic role. He is standing right next to the man we saw before who is 'privileged' enough to work and produce money. Per say Antonio is risen up to another tier of the pyramid among those 'privileged' that count with a job. Notice also how the angling of the geometric pattern we saw before and the contrast of height among the characters create a prominent downhill emphasizing that despite being above the crowd they still remain on a lower socioeconomic grade.
This only gains further emphasis on the next shot. We have an over the shoulder angling that allows to frame Antonio within the crowd once again while highlighting him. Of course he is the prominent figure among the masses as he is the one gaining the job yet it also indicates despite finding himself above, he still remains part of this low class that struggling to have an stable life.
This type of contrasts among classes, inequality and struggle of the poor is brushed all throughout the film. Most blatantly this topic and critique is shown during the dinner scene with Antonio and his son in a restaurant where we have a shot reverse shot that juxtaposes this distinction among classes and is also directly given trough dialogue by the character of Antonio.
Neorealism depicts Italy's move from individual concern to the tragic failure of the human condition, is the inherent struggle of socioeconomic classes due to the absence of solidarity and a voice to against the difference of society towards suffering. Neorealism is a speech in favor of the mistreated and poor, a call back to attend the social inequality. De Sica understood that such problematic is rooted deep inside of society thus the conflict established is not easily solved by finding the stolen bicycle, in fact said problematic is never solved. If Antonio would have found his bicycle at the next day like the beginning of the story it could have be stolen back again; instead De Sica submerges us into a gritty portrayal of reality and that call back to sensibility and humanism. Perfectly closed as he ended with Antonio and his son being once again blended up with the crowd.