MIRACLE IN MILAN Movie Review

Miracolo a Milano

Vittorio De Sica's incomparable fantasy is an immensely satisfying neo-realist fable about heavenly intervention in the form of the miracle-working Toto the Hero (Francesco Golisano), whose missions include driving capitalists out of a Milanese ghetto while showering undreamed of blessings on the city's impoverished. De Sica managed to address the very real and dispiriting problem of Europe's displaced newly poor after World War II, and the fantasy form he uses for his moral tale is itself miraculously poetic, extraordinarily touching, and thoroughly uncon-descending. An exquisite work of fantasy, adapted from Cesare Zavattini's story Toto the Good.

NEXT STOP … Shoeshine, The Bicycle Thief, Umberto D

1951 95m/B IT Francesco Golisano, Brunella Bova, Emma Gramatica, Paolo Stoppa; D: vittorio De Sica; W: Cesare Zavattini. Cannes Film Festival ‘51: Best Film; New York Film Critics Awards ‘51: Best Foreign Film. VHS, LV HMV, FCT