The Bicycle Thief (1948): I was in the 10th grade when I saw this Italian film by the master Vittorio De Sica. The story about a young man who finds a job putting up posters in war-torn Italy and has his bicycle stolen, holds you captive with its simplicity in narration. It makes you feel the depth and the power of the story purely through its shots. There is very little dialogue. You get pulled into the story, even in the final scene where, Antonio (the father) has just received a beating for stealing a bike. Bruno (the son), in one of the most pain-filled sequences, takes off his cap and gives it to his embarrassed father. It reels you into the story so that you really wish that the father and son got their own bicycle back.