Influence
Wang Xiaoshuai's 2001 film Beijing Bicycle explores similar themes of poverty and alienation, set in late 20th-century Beijing. Such similarities, and the bicycle theft driving the plot, have led critics to see parallels in the films. The relationship between Bruno and Antonio displays the strong bond between a father and his son.
Bicycle Thieves also influenced several Indian films. It was cited as an influence on several early Indian art films, including Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zamin (Two Acres of Land, 1953) and Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali (1955). Indian director Anurag Kashyap cites this film as his inspiration for becoming a director. At least one critic cited it as an influence on Zeze Gamboa's Angolan film O Heroi (The Hero, 2004), in which a war veteran's prosthetic leg is stolen.
Filmmakers from the Iranian New Wave such as Dariush Mehrjui and Jafar Panahi have cited the film as an important influence on their work.
The film was also parodied in the 1989 film The Icicle Thief.
The film was also on TCM's top 15 most influential films list.
It was ranked #4 in Empire magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.
Read more about this topic: Bicycle Thieves
Famous quotes containing the word influence:
“Nature has taken more care than the fondest parent for the education and refinement of her children. Consider the silent influence which flowers exert, no less upon the ditcher in the meadow than the lady in the bower. When I walk in the woods, I am reminded that a wise purveyor has been there before me; my most delicate experience is typified there.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The purifying, healing influence of literature, the dissipating of passions by knowledge and the written word, literature as the path to understanding, forgiveness and love, the redeeming might of the word, the literary spirit as the noblest manifestation of the spirit of man, the writer as perfected type, as saint.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. They have no cause of their own to plead, but while they enlighten and sustain the reader his common sense will not refuse them. Their authors are a natural and irresistible aristocracy in every society, and, more than kings or emperors, exert an influence on mankind.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)