Bicycle Thief and L’Enfant: Compare and Contrast

There are similarities and differences between the two films: Bicycle Thief and L’Enfant. Similar to Bicycle thief, the main character of L’Enfant commits crime. However, in “L’Enfant”, the main character Bruno continuously commits crimes without moral doubts. While Bicycle Thief makes audience feel moral conflicts because of its complicated social context, L’Enfant makes us feel the same but with the lack of the context. We don’t know why the Bruno is in huge amount of debt and why he choose to steal, and even sell his baby to solve his financial issue. As a result, we fail to apply any moral rulers on him.

However, in both films, the main characters’ relationships with children awake their conscience. In Bicycle Thief, the son makes the father hesitate to act on the crime. On the other hand, in L’Enfant, as the child who Bruno collaborates together get arrested, he finally realizes what he have done are wrong and turns himself in to the police. When Sonia visits him, she reminds him all of his mistakes. Carry with overwhelming guilt, he breaks out with tears.