It’s long been common practice in Hollywood to cast conventionally attractive actors as sympathetic criminal antiheroes. Humphrey Bogart in King of the Underworld,  Al Pacino in The Godfather trilogy and Denzel Washington in American Gangster are just a few examples. However, this practice is a relatively new phenomenon in Italy. In Italian films from the 1960s and 1970s, Italian gangsters were depicted as shady and charmless.

Italian director Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves follows Antonio Ricci’s quest for his stolen bicycle, his portal to employment, and consequent riches. Through documenting Antonio’s progress in hunting down the guilty Alfredo Catelli, De Sica also traces the evolution of Antonio’s hats. De Sica implants three different styles––worn by Antonio as well as other characters––that work together to manifest a hierarchy where each style symbolizes a different level of authority.