The Bicycle Thieves

This movie is classic Italian neorealism at its best.  It broke my heart to watch it -  so much suffering &   desperation.   We rarely see many "mainstream" movies depicting Italy after the war, but this works very well.  Director Vittoria de Sica presented the political & social climate in the country, simply by presenting a simple story line of a man trying to find his bike, and all the symbolism that it represented.
On a lighter note, I could see where Tim Burton used scenes from this movie for his first film "Pee Wee's Big Adventure", a comedy about a boy trying to find his stolen bike....