De Sica's Compassion

Vittorio De Sica cast non-professional actors because he believed trained performers could not convey genuine poverty. In Bicycle Thieves, the father and son are played by a factory worker and a child found on the street, and their untrained authenticity carries the film.

De Sica's casting philosophy was political as much as aesthetic. Using real workers to tell stories about workers' struggles erased the barrier between art and life, making the film feel less like entertainment and more like testimony.