The film Leonardo DiCaprio loves is a hymn to humanity that made the world cry: “I’ve watched it over and over again”
The actor from ‘One Battle After Another’ considers this post-war Italian film immortal.
There are some films you simply cannot get enough of. This year, Leonardo DiCaprio stars in a film that fits that description with ease: One Battle After Another, which launches the promising awards season by leading the nominations for the upcoming Golden Globes.
When the acclaimed actor was asked in an interview promoting Paul Thomas Anderson’s film about the movies he has watched repeatedly, he did not hesitate to begin his long list with one of the most emblematic works of Italian neorealism: Bicycle Thieves.
Directed by Vittorio De Sica and released in 1948, the film follows Antonio, a father from a poor family who works pasting up advertising posters. When his bicycle is stolen and his job is put at risk, he sets out with his son to recover it, travelling across Rome and exposing the deep misery of the post-war era.
Its documentary style and its exploration of human dignity and survival have secured its status as one of the masterpieces of the Italian Neorealist movement, as well as one of the most moving and enduring stories in cinema. In 1949, it won the Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film.
Among the other films the Oscar winner mentioned, he highlighted Goodfellas and Taxi Driver, both directed by Martin Scorsese, the filmmaker with whom he has collaborated more than any other. They already have a new project in development, an adaptation of the thriller novel What Happens At Night.
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DiCaprio also said he has watched such unforgettable classics as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Tokyo Story, Vertigo, and The Big Lebowski “over and over again”.
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