Die Seifendiebe

This clearly stands as one of the greatest parodies of all times, and it is in Italian. Being a great admirer of The Bicycle Thief, I found this movie hilarious, especially during the parts Nichetti was watching his film go out of control. Parodies are slowly becoming a dead art form, especially considering Scary Movie seems to be the best one can offer even though it relies heavily on low brow humor. If you can find this particular film, rent it.

The Bicycle thief was a sad and moving story. Saying I enjoyed it would be contradictory to the feeling the viewer is left with at the end. I can, however, state that I enjoyed The Icicle Thief.

You have to pay attention to what is being said at the start of the film to understand the Directors intent to honor the original, not to "spoof" it.

The film uses color as well as Black and White brilliantly. I laughed quite a bit, which is more than usual for mainstream Hollywood comedies. Reason: This ain't hollywood...

Thanks.

Maurizio Nichetti is a talented director, writer and actor in Italy. The film is not just a spoof of the depressing Neorealist "Ladri di Biciclette", but also a satire on the media in the republic. The majority of Italian films are funded by television channels such as the Rai and Mediaset. By jeopardizing the financing of this film by taking out a bitter swipe at the film's revenue source.

He also makes a powerful comment on the portrayal of women in Italian films of both the 1940s and 1980s. Nichetti deserves more credit for this film than he seems to have received.

Overall, however, it is very funny and intelligent the way that the spectator forms part of the film. It is not an escapist film.

A somewhat self-important film director attends a TV studio where his latest film, The Icicle Thief, is to be shown as part of an arts programme. During transmission, loud colour commercials constantly interrupt the sombre black and white film, frustrating the director. A power failure results in a strange fusion where he enters the world of his film which itself has fused with the commercials that have been relentlessly interrupting it.

This Italian comedy is the brain child of Maurizio Nichetti who not only plays a dual role of the film director and star of the movie-within-a-movie, but also directs the film proper as well as co-wrote the thing. So quite a labour of love and an impressive achievement. The movie operates I guess in three distinct ways – as a parody of the film The Bicycle Thief (1948) and Italian neo-realism in general, a satirical assessment of commercialism vs art and lastly as an inventive bit of imaginative cinema where three worlds merge together. The worlds of course are the 'real' world of the TV studio and households watching television, the world of the movie itself and lastly the world of the commercials. It's an idea which is executed very nicely with some fun cross-references between the realities which allows for a few amusing observations. It's an idea which was used in Woody Allen's earlier The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) but Nichetti definitely takes the concept further and makes more of it. Overall, this is an amusing, inventive and clever bit of comedy.

This movie is not supposed to make you laugh. Nor is it merely a parody of "The Bicycle Thief". It is a meditation on the way Contemporary Italian Directors are treated, or mistreated, in current-day Italy. It is also a reflection of how these film directors are Intellectual shunned by "Intellectual" film critics in favor of more time honored classics such as "The Bicycle Thief" and also how films are treated by the Television Companies, which produce or co-produce most modern Italian films. Personally, I think it's a great and bizarre film which owes alot to Fellini's 8 1/2. the way the three worlds in the film begin to inter-weave is very clever. If you like weird movies that trancend meta-levels, See this now!