BERLIN FILM SOCIETY presents Bicycle Thieves

-PRESS RELEASE-
BERLIN FILM SOCIETY
Bicycle Thieves
Rome, Open City
by
by
presents
ITALIAN NEOREALISM
Vittorio De Sica on Sat 21 Sept
Roberto Rossellini on Sun 22 Sept
Date: Sat 21 September & Sun 22 September
Venue: KUEHLHAUS,
Kühlhaus Luckenwalder Straße 3, 10963 Berlin
On Saturday 21 and Sunday 22, the Berlin Film Society will host events dedicated to the Italian Neorealist movement
with special screenings of Vittorio de Sica's painstakingly-restored masterpiece, BICYCLE THIEVES (1948) and
ROME,OPEN CITY (1945) by Roberto Rossellini, with a special introduction by Dr. Lisa Akervall [Professor of Film
History at Freie Universität Berlin].
The two films we have chosen are unmissable pieces of cinematic history and we're very excited to be presenting
them at the raw yet stunning former ice factory Kühlhaus at Gleisdreick, a historical building dating back to the
19th century.
Winner of the 1950 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film, Bicycle Thieves was
voted best film of all time in 1954 by Sight & Sound magazine's poll of filmmakers and critics, and has remained in
the top 10 ever since. For its 50th anniversary, The Bicycle Thief was reissued in a newly restored print.
Roberto Rosselinni’s Rome, Open City was the first of the great Italian Neo-realist films (followed by Paisan, Bicycle
Thieves, Shoeshine, I Vitteloni, and Umberto D). Grand Prize Winner of the 1946 Cannes Film Festival, Rome, Open
City was also nominated for an Oscar and stunned critics and audiences all around the world, introducing the
with thanks to our partners
-PRESS RELEASEFILM 1
BICYCLE THIEVES / Ladri di biciclette (1948)
dir. by Vittorio De Sica I Italy I 93 min
Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) is a poor man who is thrilled when he is
at last offered a job: delivering and putting up movie posters. But he
needs a bicycle, and must supply his own, so his wife Maria (Lianella
Carelli) pawns the family's entire stock of bed linen to redeem the bicycle
he had already hocked. On his first day at work, the unlocked machine is
stolen and Antonio drops everything to go on a desperate odyssey
through the streets of Rome with his little boy Bruno (Enzo Staiola) to get
his bike back, pleading and accusing and uncovering scenes of poverty
similar to theirs wherever they go.
DATE: Sat 21 September
TIME: 19:00 Doors and Drinks
20:30 Introduction
21:00 Film Starts
[Peter Bradshaw: http://bit.ly/11JBrci
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Vittorio De Sica made his debut in 1939 with the comedy Rose Scarlatte, in
1944, La Porta Del Cielo, then he continued to produce great masterpieces
such as Siuscià (1946), Ladri di Biciclette (1948), Miracolo a Milano (1951),
milestones of Italian Neorealism.
FILM 2
ROME, OPEN CITY / Roma, Città Aperta (1945)
dir. by Roberto Rossellini I Italy I 100 min
Aldo Fabrizi as a priest helping the partisan cause and Anna Magnani
in her breakthrough role as the fiancée of a resistance memberRome, Open City (Roma città aperta) is a shockingly authentic
experience, conceived and directed amid the ruin of World War II, with
immediacy in every frame. Marking a watershed moment in Italian
cinema, this galvanic work garnered awards around the globe and
left the beginnings of a new film movement in its wake.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
The master filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, as one of the creators
of neo-realism, is one of the most influential directors of all time.
His films influenced France's nouvelle vague movement in the
1950s and '60s that changed the face of international cinema. He
also influenced American directors, including Martin Scorsese.
DATE: Sun 22 September
TIME: 18:00 Doors and Drinks
19:30 Introduction
20:00 Film Starts
-PRESS RELEASE-
INTRODUCTORY SPEAKER
Lisa Åkervall is a postdoctoral research fellow and lecturer in Film Studies at the Free University of Berlin and a member of the
collaborative research center “Aesthetic Experience and the Dissolution of Artistic Limits.” She defended her dissertation “Becoming
Visionary: A Pedagogy of Perception in Cinema” at the Free University of Berlin in 2012. Her publications in English include: “Cinema,
Affect and Vision” (in: Rhizomes 16. Special Issue: Deleuze and Film, 2008http://www.rhizomes.net/issue16/akervall.html ) and
“CharacterWitness, Actor-Medium” (in: Acting and Performance in Moving Image Culture. Bodies, Screens, and Renderings, 2012).
TICKETS ARE LIMITED!
€12
(Weekend ticket for both events only €20)
RSVP or Advanced Tickets ESSENTIAL
[email protected]
RSVP to [email protected]
Or buy advance tickets online:
Join the Bicycle Thieves event here.
Join the event
.
Join the Rome, Open City event here.