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.
17 Reviews
clever pop culture parody
mjneu5928 November 2010
Film buffs with fond memories of Vittorio de Sica's post-war Italian Neo-realist masterpiece 'Ladri di Biciclette' won't want to miss Maurizio Nichetti's clever parody, in which the director himself is shown presenting his own homage to Neo-realism on Italian TV. The gimmick is that the movie within the movie is at first interrupted and then overwhelmed by garish television commercials, prompting Nichetti to enter his own film so he can salvage the narrative: not an easy task, since after a glimpse of consumer heaven his characters are reluctant to return to post-war Roman poverty. Nichetti manages to lampoon everything from pompous film critics to inappropriate commercial programming to (with affection) highbrow film pretensions, but his plea for cinematic integrity has its own crazy logic. And he certainly knows his sources, showing more than a touch of Chaplin in the black and white film-within-the-film and borrowing mannerisms from Woody Allen in the modern framing story. Favorite ongoing gag: the trouble-prone baby who can't resist playing with carving knives, electric light sockets, and so forth.
Original and misinterpreted
DennisLittrell25 December 2002
This offbeat Italian comedy uses the familiar black and white/color dichotomy to indicate different worlds, a technique always in danger of being overdone. Last time I saw it was in Hollywood's Pleasantville (1998) where it was so cloying it annoyed; the first time magically in The Wizard of Oz (1939). It was even done (to good effect) in Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993). Here the "film" is in black and white (as it's being shown on TV) and the commercials are in color. The characters bizarrely go from one "world" to the other while somewhere in between is the "real" world of TV viewers. Because the world of TV commercials is the more fantastic, I think the technique works well here.
Maurizio Nichetti, who might (and might not) remind you of Roberto Benigni, stars as Anotonio Piermattei, the icicle thief, the protagonist of the movie within a movie, which is a Bicycle Thief-like tragic film that the TV people manage to mangle into a TV-like romantic comedy. (If you're wondering how one can be an icicle thief, keep wondering. I'll never tell.) Nichetti also plays the auteur of the film being shown on TV who is invited to be interviewed but never gets to speak partly because the film critic who is to do the interview thinks they are viewing a different film.
The title notwithstanding, this is not a satire or a "spoof" of Vittorio De Sica's internationally acclaimed The Bicycle Thief (1948), although De Sica himself might be seen as being lightly satirized. Nichetti's The Icicle Thief is more like an identification as it attempts to stand with the art film solidly against commercialism. However any similarity between the film within a film here and De Sica's masterpiece is sycophantic. This is not to say that The Icicle Thief does not have its moments and its charm. It does.
Caterina Sylos Labini who plays Maria, Antonio Piermattei's singing wife, is charming as the archetypical Italian femme fatale, a dark, lusty, earthy woman who can cry and laugh at the drop of a hat. She is contrasted with Heidi Komarck, a colorized blonde model in a butch haircut who does TV commercials. Komarck looks like a member of the Swedish ski team draped in a lingerie outfit that leaves little to the imagination while speaking only American English. My favorite part of the film was the cute shtick with Maria's happy one-year-old daughter who crawls continually into mischief (grabbing a knife by the blade, putting an electric wire in her mouth, etc.) but somehow never has to shed a tear.
That this is a satire and spoof of TV (and not De Sica's Bicycle Thief or old-time neo-realism itself) is immediately apparent when the TV film critic has to ask the name of the film he is critiquing. On TV the only things that really matter are the commercials. So, to the extent that a "Big Big" candy bar jingle and a laundry detergent superhero triumph over a black and white neo-realistic film, we can see that triumph as a satire of television and its middle-brow audience.
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)
Maurizio Nichetti, who might (and might not) remind you of Roberto Benigni, stars as Anotonio Piermattei, the icicle thief, the protagonist of the movie within a movie, which is a Bicycle Thief-like tragic film that the TV people manage to mangle into a TV-like romantic comedy. (If you're wondering how one can be an icicle thief, keep wondering. I'll never tell.) Nichetti also plays the auteur of the film being shown on TV who is invited to be interviewed but never gets to speak partly because the film critic who is to do the interview thinks they are viewing a different film.
The title notwithstanding, this is not a satire or a "spoof" of Vittorio De Sica's internationally acclaimed The Bicycle Thief (1948), although De Sica himself might be seen as being lightly satirized. Nichetti's The Icicle Thief is more like an identification as it attempts to stand with the art film solidly against commercialism. However any similarity between the film within a film here and De Sica's masterpiece is sycophantic. This is not to say that The Icicle Thief does not have its moments and its charm. It does.
Caterina Sylos Labini who plays Maria, Antonio Piermattei's singing wife, is charming as the archetypical Italian femme fatale, a dark, lusty, earthy woman who can cry and laugh at the drop of a hat. She is contrasted with Heidi Komarck, a colorized blonde model in a butch haircut who does TV commercials. Komarck looks like a member of the Swedish ski team draped in a lingerie outfit that leaves little to the imagination while speaking only American English. My favorite part of the film was the cute shtick with Maria's happy one-year-old daughter who crawls continually into mischief (grabbing a knife by the blade, putting an electric wire in her mouth, etc.) but somehow never has to shed a tear.
That this is a satire and spoof of TV (and not De Sica's Bicycle Thief or old-time neo-realism itself) is immediately apparent when the TV film critic has to ask the name of the film he is critiquing. On TV the only things that really matter are the commercials. So, to the extent that a "Big Big" candy bar jingle and a laundry detergent superhero triumph over a black and white neo-realistic film, we can see that triumph as a satire of television and its middle-brow audience.
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)
Relax and enjoy this!
MsLiz11 October 2002
A fun takeoff on the serious drama of "The Bicycle Thief." The film contrasts the intense, self-centered film director; his characters, who are just trying to make things turn out more pleasantly for themselves; the ideal and imaginary people we see in commercials; and the people in the television audience who see any film chopped up into bits that fit around commercials and other station business.
A film critic who uses the notes he prepared for another film tries to evaluate and analyze the film the television program is playing (titled "The Icicle Thief"), while the director in the studio sputters in disbelief. The characters in the melodramatic black-and-white film are stuck in drudgery and dispair until the fantasy characters in the commercials start to enter their lives. The audience, represented by a typical family, just looks at the screen whenever there is nothing better to do, while the television program chatters on in their mundane existence. Could this be us? Could this be you?
A film critic who uses the notes he prepared for another film tries to evaluate and analyze the film the television program is playing (titled "The Icicle Thief"), while the director in the studio sputters in disbelief. The characters in the melodramatic black-and-white film are stuck in drudgery and dispair until the fantasy characters in the commercials start to enter their lives. The audience, represented by a typical family, just looks at the screen whenever there is nothing better to do, while the television program chatters on in their mundane existence. Could this be us? Could this be you?
some surreal fun
SnoopyStyle26 January 2016
Director Maurizio Nichetti is a guest on a TV show. He shows his film which is reminiscent of the neo-realist Italian classic 'The Bicycle Thief' except the man steals a chandelier for his wife. The film is shown along with the commercials. Nichetti is angry that his dialog is cut up by the commercial break and the commercials start effecting the movie. After a power outage, the film and commercials get completely mixed up and Nichetti goes into the screen to tries to fix it.
The black and white movie isn't terribly interesting other than for cinephiles. It gets more and more wacky as the people from the commercials interact with the movie characters. It turns into a little crazy surrealist fun.
The black and white movie isn't terribly interesting other than for cinephiles. It gets more and more wacky as the people from the commercials interact with the movie characters. It turns into a little crazy surrealist fun.
Inventive and amusing Italian comedy
Red-Barracuda20 September 2017
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 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.
Intelligent Italian Comedy
marcus_morgan8 October 2000
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.
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 beautifully executed spoof on pop culture
meebly30 November 1998
A movie is shown on Italian TV, edited for time and content and butchered so badly even the characters in the film don't know where they end and the commercials begin. Incensed, the director hops a train to Rome to complain to the Italian Film Board of the mockery being made of his film. Unfortunately, his train arrives at the terminal in the film, and he becomes part of the ever-increasingly discombobulated action.
This is a comedic masterwork of satire, spoof and slapstick. While the film's title and the "film-within-a-film" are both take-offs on DiSica's classic "The Bicycle Thief", this is, in fact inspired by the best of Chaplin, Keaton and, in some ways, "Your Show of Shows". Director/star Maurizio Nichetti keeps the comic action going at a furious pace, never missing an opportunity to assault the film industry marketing hype and TV industry advertising joke he so disdains.
You won't want to think about the satire, though, while you're watching this. No matter how much you may hate subtitled films, this is a genuine riot, and you will not stop laughing.
This is a comedic masterwork of satire, spoof and slapstick. While the film's title and the "film-within-a-film" are both take-offs on DiSica's classic "The Bicycle Thief", this is, in fact inspired by the best of Chaplin, Keaton and, in some ways, "Your Show of Shows". Director/star Maurizio Nichetti keeps the comic action going at a furious pace, never missing an opportunity to assault the film industry marketing hype and TV industry advertising joke he so disdains.
You won't want to think about the satire, though, while you're watching this. No matter how much you may hate subtitled films, this is a genuine riot, and you will not stop laughing.
Humorous, delightful, unusual, special, joyous!
onnanob223 March 2008
Warning: Spoilers
"The Icicle Thief" is a very difficult film to describe by plot. In fact, I can't think of any other film that is so hard to describe. Don't let that fact hinder you from watching this film! "The Icicle Thief" is a wonderful film, and I strongly recommend it!
I think the easiest way to describe "The Icicle Thief" would be to say there are four basic plot elements involved:
1. A motion picture is being shown on national Italian television (this is where the parody of "The Bicycle Thief" comes in.)
2. There are commercial breaks during the airing of the film.
3. The director of the film being shown on television is present in the television studio.
4. An Italian family watches the film from their living room.
The motion picture that's being shown on Italian television is similar to the classic, "The Bicycle Thief," and the film's director is nervous about its broadcast. The film eventually copies a key scene from "The Bicycle Thief," and a character steals a crystal chandelier from the chandelier factory where he works. The stolen "icicles" are the dangling crystals of the chandelier. Everything seems to be running as scheduled with the broadcast of the film.
Suddenly, something goes haywire as the film is being broadcast! A lovely swimsuit model from one of the commercials gets transported into the film that's being shown! Also, characters from the film being aired find themselves in the commercials! Black and white meets color, and the English language meets Italian as the characters go into worlds which are not of their own media. It's up to the film's director to save his film as it's being aired, and he manages to go into the "world" of his film to straighten it all out. The results are humorous, delightful, and even joyous! While all of this chaos is going on, a family watches the film unfold in the comfort of their living room. They aren't too sure what to make of the film that's being broadcast onto their television!
"The Icicle Thief" is a very imaginative film, and a very well-made film. Director Maurizio Nichetti has crafted something unusual and special. The performances are wonderful; including Maurizio Nichetti's own performance as the director of the film that's being shown on Italian television. Caterina Sylos Labini turns in an excellent performance as the pasta-making wife and mother in the parody of "The Bicycle Thief." Heidi Komarek gives "The Icicle Thief" a fun touch as the English speaking, television commercial model, who finds herself suddenly transported into the Italian film as it's being broadcast.
One of my favorite moments happens when Maria Piermattei (Caterina Sylos Labini), a character from the black and white "Bicycle Thief" parody, finds her little boy has left the black and white film to join a colorful television commercial. It's a moment of colorful brilliance and joy!
I think the easiest way to describe "The Icicle Thief" would be to say there are four basic plot elements involved:
1. A motion picture is being shown on national Italian television (this is where the parody of "The Bicycle Thief" comes in.)
2. There are commercial breaks during the airing of the film.
3. The director of the film being shown on television is present in the television studio.
4. An Italian family watches the film from their living room.
The motion picture that's being shown on Italian television is similar to the classic, "The Bicycle Thief," and the film's director is nervous about its broadcast. The film eventually copies a key scene from "The Bicycle Thief," and a character steals a crystal chandelier from the chandelier factory where he works. The stolen "icicles" are the dangling crystals of the chandelier. Everything seems to be running as scheduled with the broadcast of the film.
Suddenly, something goes haywire as the film is being broadcast! A lovely swimsuit model from one of the commercials gets transported into the film that's being shown! Also, characters from the film being aired find themselves in the commercials! Black and white meets color, and the English language meets Italian as the characters go into worlds which are not of their own media. It's up to the film's director to save his film as it's being aired, and he manages to go into the "world" of his film to straighten it all out. The results are humorous, delightful, and even joyous! While all of this chaos is going on, a family watches the film unfold in the comfort of their living room. They aren't too sure what to make of the film that's being broadcast onto their television!
"The Icicle Thief" is a very imaginative film, and a very well-made film. Director Maurizio Nichetti has crafted something unusual and special. The performances are wonderful; including Maurizio Nichetti's own performance as the director of the film that's being shown on Italian television. Caterina Sylos Labini turns in an excellent performance as the pasta-making wife and mother in the parody of "The Bicycle Thief." Heidi Komarek gives "The Icicle Thief" a fun touch as the English speaking, television commercial model, who finds herself suddenly transported into the Italian film as it's being broadcast.
One of my favorite moments happens when Maria Piermattei (Caterina Sylos Labini), a character from the black and white "Bicycle Thief" parody, finds her little boy has left the black and white film to join a colorful television commercial. It's a moment of colorful brilliance and joy!
Genius
mattlodder13 February 2002
Funny *and* intelligent? When was the last time you could say that about a movie?! A feast for any serious move lover. A shocking indictment of televisual culture and product placement ("Is this the movie or is this the advert?"), this is an amazing, incredible, vital, sharp, witty and telling critique of post-modern society. Lame? Not at all - with slapstick humour and more than enough intellectual depth to keep even the most ardent academic entangled for weeks (intertextuality, postmodernism, surrealism, etc. etc.), this film has something for everybody. For the simple film-goer, its a light hearted comedy, with cues from the Marx brothers, Chaplin and the age-old traditions of slapstick comedy. For the more serious viewer, the sheer depth of the director's passion for cinema shines through. I haven't a bad thing to say about this film... please see it.
What's the Italian word for "lame"?
Varlaam26 August 1999
This supposed comedy is a send-up of TV commercials -- oh, how novel -- and Italian neo-realism. Spoofing De Sica's "Ladri di biciclette" verges on sacrilege, as far as I'm concerned. If you're going to do it, it should at least be funny.
This movie contains not a single actual laugh, not one, the kind where your mouth opens and sound comes out. I cracked a smile at the street address joke which occurs at the 64th minute of the film. Up till then, it was like watching spaghetti boiling, something which actually does occur during the first hour.
I can hardly believe it, but "The Bicycle Thief" has more humour, and it's a tragedy.
This movie contains not a single actual laugh, not one, the kind where your mouth opens and sound comes out. I cracked a smile at the street address joke which occurs at the 64th minute of the film. Up till then, it was like watching spaghetti boiling, something which actually does occur during the first hour.
I can hardly believe it, but "The Bicycle Thief" has more humour, and it's a tragedy.
The film is an homage, not a spoof.
jammo18 May 2000
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.
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.
Laughed so hard I cried!
Ladri29 September 1998
This is the funniest movie of all time. I laughed so hard I cried. Even a long time afterwards, I was bursting my ribs with laughter. The visual gags were great; the plot was cleverly conceived; and even though it's subtitled, that didn't detract from the humo(u)r.
A wild, clever Italian comedy
rdoyle2910 January 2023
Maurizio Nichetti, the Italian Woody Allen, is probably best known to North American audiences for playing the animator in the comedic live action interludes in Bruno Bozzetto's "Fantasia" homage "Allegro Non Troppo".
Here he directs and stars as himself (sort of) leaning very heavily into the "Italian Woody Allen" image as a director of comedies who has made a serious film in homage to one of his film heroes. His film "The Icicle Thief" is a homage to "Bicycle Thieves" and is being shown on Italian television. Things don't start out too well as the host seems more concerned about other movies they are going to be airing ("Army of Shadows" and "The Manchurian Candidate").
The movie is constantly being interrupted by commercials, which irritates Nichetti. His worries seem well-founded when a scantily clad model from a commercial ends up in his movie disrupting the plot. As the plot goes off the rails, one of his film characters enters a commercial and disappears from the film. Nichetti himself enters his film to try and put things right.
This delightfully strange little film operates on multiple levels. It starts out as a parody of/homage to "Bicycle Thieves" with Nichetti also playing the main character. It turns into a third wall breaking satire of commerciality and the way in which we consume films. (The film frequently cuts to a typical Italian family watching the movie within the movie on TV and getting confused by the cross-pollination of movie and commercials.)
Here he directs and stars as himself (sort of) leaning very heavily into the "Italian Woody Allen" image as a director of comedies who has made a serious film in homage to one of his film heroes. His film "The Icicle Thief" is a homage to "Bicycle Thieves" and is being shown on Italian television. Things don't start out too well as the host seems more concerned about other movies they are going to be airing ("Army of Shadows" and "The Manchurian Candidate").
The movie is constantly being interrupted by commercials, which irritates Nichetti. His worries seem well-founded when a scantily clad model from a commercial ends up in his movie disrupting the plot. As the plot goes off the rails, one of his film characters enters a commercial and disappears from the film. Nichetti himself enters his film to try and put things right.
This delightfully strange little film operates on multiple levels. It starts out as a parody of/homage to "Bicycle Thieves" with Nichetti also playing the main character. It turns into a third wall breaking satire of commerciality and the way in which we consume films. (The film frequently cuts to a typical Italian family watching the movie within the movie on TV and getting confused by the cross-pollination of movie and commercials.)
A different kind of comedy
caspian197822 August 2004
Only in Italy! The Icicle Thief is somewhat of a parody and somewhat a black comedy. Overall, the movie has its funny side and its artistic side as well. The cast is an interesting treat as much as the movie's story line. A times the movie does get a little crazy and unpredictable but that is the movie's strong point. The element of the weird realistic moments that makes The Icicle Thief is as unique as the movie they make fun of, The Bicycle Thief. The box cover of the film and the description of the movie show actress / model Heidi Komarek. Although she is only in 1/6 of the movie and plays a very small part, she is showcased as the movie's star and main draw. As a comedy, the movie stands on its own and makes an interesting story, With or without Heidi Komarek, the audience will enjoy this very weird and original movie.
Varlaam has it wrong.
d00gl8 April 2001
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!
Outrageously funny
pmottonen21 February 2000
This film almost made me fall out of my seat I laughed so hard. Very clever use of black and white and color. The movie within a movie keeps it moving. The role of the young boy provides a good counter point to the adults and the baby, well it's too funny for words.
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