Shot 7 reveals the object of his gaze, multitudes of parked bicycles. He turns away, but then his gaze settles on something equally distressing. Shot 6 is a reaction shot of Ricci taking in the immensity of his son's distress. Bruno is holding his head in his hands, as if he is suffering the deepest anguish. Shot 5 is a full shot of Bruno sitting on the curb, seen from Ricci's point of view. His gaze turns in the direction of Bruno. (See figure 30.) Shot 4 returns to a medium-close shot of Ricci. ![]() Rimming its walls are gigantic statues of heroic, idealized athletes, a cruel reminder to Ricci of all he does not represent to his son. The stadium is designed in the monumental style of fascist architecture. ![]() This shot signifies more than the source of the crowd noise. Shot 3, from Ricci's point of view, is the huge soccer stadium where the game is being played. Crowd noise from the stadium swells up on the sound track, motivating shot 2, a medium-close shot of Ricci reacting to the crowd noise. Bruno, who has been trailing behind Ricci in the long trek across town, immediately sits down on a curb to rest. People are lined up on a curve listening for the results of the game. ![]() In shot 1 of the sequence, Ricci and Bruno arrive at a part of town near a soccer stadium with a game in progress. It is truly a bitter moment in the film, which De Sica forces us to contemplate at length as he cuts to several long takes of Ricci and Bruno walking through the city streets in defeat. Not only can we infer that Ricci has lost all hope of being able to keep his job and hence his faith and hope for a better future, we can also intuit his pain at being mocked and humiliated in front of his young son, who, he must fear, has lost faith in his father's ability to get justice from the world. The thief has already disposed of the bicycle and Ricci cannot prove that he has taken it. He has found and confronted the thief, but it is too late. The sequence begins immediately after Ricci has lost his last best hope of finding his stolen bicycle.
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