Sunday, March 17, 2013
Bicycles v. Overcoats: Who Has the Last Laugh?
On the surface Bicycle Thieves and The Last Laugh have the same plot. In both films the protagonist either loses his job or will likely lose a job and in a desperate bid to restore that job they need to reacquire or even steal a precious object that symbolizes their position, a bicycle or an overcoat, respectively. Furthermore, if we ignore the "happy ending" imposed by the studio on The Last Laugh, both protagonists end the movie defeated and depressed with no hope for a better future. Nonetheless, despite these similarities, these are different movies. In what way are they different? What is the social or moral message of each? What are each say about the society of their times (Germany in the 20's and Italy in the 40"s)? How do they differ on questions of social mobility, morality or the family? Is one more hopeful or cynical?
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Neither The Last Laugh or Bicycle Thieves are happy movies. To be honest, they are two of the most depressing movies I’ve ever seen. Both movies are microcosms of their respective societies, with sadness and disappointment throughout.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1920s, Germany was dealing with reparations from World War I, with inflation out the wazoo. With layoffs abound, the class differences between rich and poor were significant and growing. That, teamed with the worsening condition of the doorman, led to his personal demotion. In the 1940s, Italy was in a similar situation, with its demise in World War II leading to major layoffs and poverty throughout the country. Inflation was also exorbitant there, with jobs hard to come by. In fact, the actor who played Antonio lost his job shortly after starring in the movie.
The similarities between the two movies heavily outweigh the differences, though the differences are much deeper and more explanatory. To start, only in The Last Laugh did the protagonist begin the movie with employment. In Bicycle Thieves, Antonio is unemployed at the outset of the movie, looking for a job. Because he gets a job, that makes Bicycle Thieves slightly more hopeful. That said, being a more hopeful film compared to The Last Laugh means practically nothing. In Bicycle Thieves, Antonio has a family to take care of, with familial shame being an Italian ideal, though hope for the future also reflected in his son. The doorman from The Last Laugh is old and lonely, with only himself to worry about.
Both movies reveal the depression of their respective societies, with job loss and poverty expressed through setbacks the protagonists must overcome. Bicycle Thieves is an overall “more hopeful” film based on Antionio’s ability to acquire a job while no such happiness, no matter how temporary, does not exist in the main plot of The Last Laugh.
I agree with Alex. Both movies show the life of an average man at the time in a nation rife with problems after being defeated in the two greatest and most devastating wars in human history. Both the doorman and Antonio are victims of this situation. While there are certainly similarities between the two characters, as Alex points out, the differences are perhaps more important. The Doorman's family deserts him immediately after he loses his job while Antonio's family has been with him presumably since he lost his last one. Antonio's wife was willing to sacrifice the sheets off of their bed in order to acquire the bicycle. More importantly, Antonio's son Bruno stays with him throughout the film and helps him search for the bike; ultimately it is his son who redeems him. I mean this literally in the sense that it is his presence which likely convinces the men to let his father go; I also mean it figuratively. The primary difference between the two is the notion of hope. The Doorman also gives up hope earlier; while it is true that he attempts to steal back his coat, doing so would mean nothing; it is only a symbol and holds no intrinsic value to restoring his old position. For the entire movie, Antonio and Bruno search for the bicycle. The Last Laugh ends with no hope at all for the erstwhile doorman, who is literally on his knees scrubbing the floor of a bathroom; meanwhile, Bruno and Antonio walk hand in hand back home. The family is ready and willing to help each other and sustain themselves through these hard times. The poster-hanging job came up suddenly; it is not impossible that another job would present itself soon. If the studio had asked for a happy ending for Bicycle Thieves, it would not be a far stretch for such a thing to happen, while the request and the result in The Last Laugh is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most apparent differences between the Bicycle Thieves and The Last Laugh is actually associated with one of its most apparent similarities. As the original question suggests, both films portray a protagonist who is motivated to steal a precious symbol of employment because of their current unemployment or pending unemployment. While both objects are symbols, the key difference is that the bicycle has more of a practical use for Antonio’s job than the overcoat does for the doorman. This difference in symbolism also speaks to the inherent difference in style between the two movies—The Last Laugh being a product German Expressionism and Bicycle Thieves from Neo-realism. It makes sense to me that the symbol of the bicycle, like the overcoat, represents the working class of both societies but what makes the bicycle a more potent symbol is the fact that a vast majority of the working class public rides one. During the scene in Bicycle Thieves where Antonio and his son are wandering outside of the “futbol” stadium, the camera, in a sort of panoramic shot, captures both the sheer number of fans attending the game and also endless amount of bicycles to match each person. The visual similarities between all of the bicycles highlights the idea of success through collective growth and unity that seems to be indicative of Italian working class culture in the 1940s contrasts with the overcoat, which appears to represent a desire for the opportunity to climb the social ladder rather than to reform the entire economic system (Reform probably appealed to both cultures equally but I think the films highlighted different sides of the same coin). With respect to family, I believe the films also differ slightly. Both protagonists are interested in supporting their family through employment, however I believe that Bicycle Thieves portrays the familial connection in a more emotional and personal manner than in The Last Laugh. Bruno is a central supporting role in Bicycle Thieves and he represents not only the motive for Antonio’s quest to find employment, but also his moral compass, moral support and symbol of hope. The audience has an almost constant reminder, through Bruno, of the morally sound response to all of the setbacks Antonio faces along with the motivation to overcome them. In contrast, The Last Laugh focuses much more on the individual motivation behind employment for the sake of legitimization or status than on employment for the sake of supporting the family. The one time that a family member (the wife) witnesses firsthand the doorman toiling in his bathroom job, the doorman’s reaction is of complete embarrassment and his resulting motivation to gain a promotion is not necessarily because of the need to support his family, but instead it is caused by his need to regain a sense of dignity and self worth (after all, he still has a salary—even if it is low—whereas Antonio’s struggling between salary vs. no salary.) IN either case, both protagonists (as most people struggling with employment do) desire the dignity of an honest job and would like to support their families, but again both films seem to highlight different sides of the same coin. Both movies are definitely cynical at some level but I would argue that Bicycle Thieves is more realistic than cynical. Bicycle Thieves seems to be more believable because of its neo-realistic content and less of a focus on stylistic exaggerations seen throughout the Last Laugh. The actors were real people and the scenes and film techniques seemed way more natural and continuous than those of the Last Laugh.
ReplyDeleteExcluding the studio forced ending of The Last Laugh, it and Bicycle Thieves have a lot in common. They both provide commentary on the life of an everyday man in society. In both films the protagonist loses something that is the key to their existence, for the man in The Last Laugh it is his job and with the loss of that also his dignity, and for the man in Bicycle Thieves it is his bike, which is illustrated to be the means for which he could take care of his family. Another aspect these two films have in common is the way the protagonist attempt to steal back what they’ve lost. The light in which their crimes are shown is similar in the sense that the protagonist is shamed for what he does, but in Bicycle Thieves when the protagonist steals the bike his son see and there seemed to be much more of an attack on the man in Bicycle Thieves dignity. Although the protagonist in Bicycle Thieves seems to be put down more for his crime, he seems to have more going for him and the ending seems to be a bit more hopeful as he still has his son at hand, who is still there for him and supporting him, while in The Last Laugh the protagonist is really left with nothing and the viewer gets the feeling that there is no potential for redemption or any sense of the protagonist overcoming his situation, excluding the studio ending of course.
ReplyDeleteThe plots of these two movies are incredibly similar, however, the sadness and emotion differs based on how the main characters are portrayed. In the last laugh, we start off with a man who is clearly content with his life, who loses everything he has and gains none of it back (at least in the director's cut). It is hard to relate to the doorman because he never really does much to get his job back, and we never really saw him hard at work to achieve his 'esteemed' position. However, in Bicycle Thieves, the movie starts off with a man who is trying to get a job, only to provide for his son Bruno. We then watch him struggle by selling his only possessions so that he can buy a bike and get a job just to maintain a living. As for the doorman, we only see him lose everything he had because of something that he couldn't help, and then proceed to feel bad for himself instead of trying to do something about it. The plots of the movies are very similar, but the emotion is very different. I felt much worse for the man in Bicycle Thieves than the Doorman in The Last Laugh, but in the end, the two characters were in the same depressing, jobless state.
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