Miracle in Milan
| Miracle in Milan | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Vittorio De Sica |
| Produced by | Vittorio De Sica |
| Screenplay by | Cesare Zavattini Vittorio De Sica Suso Cecchi d'Amico Mario Chiari Adolfo Franci |
| Story by | Cesare Zavattini |
| Starring |
Emma Gramatica Francesco Golisano |
| Music by | Alessandro Cicognini |
| Cinematography | Aldo Graziati |
| Edited by | Eraldo Da Roma |
| Distributed by |
Joseph Burstyn Inc. (US) Criterion Collection (DVD) |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language |
Italian Milanese |
Miracle in Milan (Italian: Miracolo a Milano) is a 1951 Italian film directed by Vittorio de Sica. The screenplay was co-written by Cesare Zavattini, based on his novel Totò il Buono. The picture stars Francesco Golisano, Emma Gramatica, Paolo Stoppa, and Guglielmo Barnabò.
The film, told as a neo-realist fable, explains the lives of a poverty-stricken group in post-war Milan, Italy.
This fantasy tale tells of Totò who, found in a cabbage patch, is adopted by Lolotta, a wise and kind old woman. When Lolotta dies he moves to an orphanage. At eighteen Totò (Francesco Golisano) leaves the orphanage and ends up in a shantytown squatter colony on the outskirts of Milan.
Totò's organizational ability learned at the orphanage and his simple kindness and optimistic outlook acquired from Lolotta bring structure to the colony and a sense of happiness and well-being among the dispossessed who live there.
Totò is given a magic dove by the ghost of Lolotta and he uses its powers to grant wishes to those who ask. Eventually the dove is taken back by two angels who object to a mortal using its magic powers.
When oil is found in the shantytown capitalists acquire it and the squatters are taken away ostensibly to prison. On the way, however, the dove is returned to Totò and his wish for the freedom of his friends is granted. They fly away on broomsticks borrowed from the street sweepers in Milan's central square and circle around the Cathedral and then away into heaven.
Vittorio De Sica wrote that he made the film in order to show how the "common man" can exist given the realities of life: "It is true that my people have already attained happiness after their own fashion; precisely because they are destitute, these people still feel - as the majority of ordinary men perhaps no longer do - the living warmth of a ray of winter sunshine, the simple poetry of the wind. They greet water with the same pure joy as Saint Francis did."
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Wikipedia