I've lost all my money on these films. They are not commercial. But I'm glad to lose it this way. To have for a souvenir of my life pictures like Umberto D. and The Bicycle Thief.

His meeting with Cesare Zavattini was a very important event: together they created some of the most celebrated films of the neorealistic age like Sciuscià (Shoeshine) and Bicycle Thieves (released as The Bicycle Thief in America) both of which De Sica directed. Let television do television let them do documentaries but cinema as such should be shown on screens because there's no one more lazy than the public. He led a double family life with double celebrations on holidays.

Indeed the great critical success of Sciuscià (the first foreign film to be so recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) and Bicycle Thieves helped establish the permanent Best Foreign Film Oscar. Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: Sciuscià and Bicycle Thieves were awarded honorary Oscars while Ieri oggi domani and Il giardino dei Finzi Contini won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Bicycle Thieves was cited by Turner Classic Movies as one of the 15 most influential films in cinema history.