10 am
Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves/Bicycle Thief)
1948, B&W, 94 minutes.
Director: Vittorio de Sica.
One of the most compassionate and best-loved films from the period known as Italian Neorealism, 1944–1953. Bicycle Thief (as it’s known in the U.S.) is considered one of the greatest films of all time, and like most great works of art it functions on several levels—as a travelogue featuring many Roman locations, as a heartwarming father-son story, and as an existential parable on man’s search for meaning in the modern world. Winner of the 1949 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
- Introduced by Trent Nicholas, who teaches film studies at VCU’s
Art History Department.

1 pm
Pasqualino Settebeliezze
(Seven Beauties)
1975, Color, 115 minutes.
Director: Lina Wertmuller.
A tour-de-force performance by actor and frequent Lina Wertmuller collaborator Giancarlo Giannini as the memorable and sadly pragmatic Pasqualino, a slick, dog-eyed con man who imagines himself irresistible to the opposite sex. A black comedy in the tradition of her earlier films (Seduction of Mimi, Swept Away), Seven Beauties finds director Wertmuller at the top of her form, and Giannini was never funnier or more tragic. Nominated for four Oscars including Best Actor and Best Director.
- Introduced by F. T. Rea, a freelance writer and ex-manager of the
Biograph Theatre where “7 Beauties” opened.