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MIRACLE IN MILAN
1951
Director
Vittorio De Sica
Starring
Francesco Golisano
Paolo Stoppa
Guglielmo Barnabò
Emma Gramatica
Runtime
97 minutes
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Between releasing his two Neorealist classics BICYCLE THIEVES (1948) and UMBERTO D. (1952), Vitorrio De Sica mustered a wild storm of whimsy: MIRACLE IN MILAN. Managing to achieve the same level of class-consciousness with a nudge and a wink, this lesser known Italian fable lends De Sica's oeuvre a flare that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Straight out of an Alice Guy-Blaché film, our hero Totò (Francesco Golisano) is introduced in infancy, naked and wailing in a cabbage patch. He's discovered by a charming elderly milkmaid who raises him as her own until she passes on and Totò is let loose upon the Neorealist landscape. However our protagonist is anything but a Bruno or Umberto; he triumphantly enters the working world saying “Buongiorno!” to every solemn stranger he passes as he makes his way towards the shanty town where he will begin to build a life.
Totò turns the tough situations that his community of squatters face into games with the children and finds humor in just about every unfortunate circumstance. Buoyantly he traverses his new world until one day two landowners discover this well-established slum village and threaten to demolish it. This seems like it could be the end of the community, but the two men are overcome by the strength of Totò and his neighbors, agreeing to let them stay. That is, until digging a hole for a maypole, they discover the land contains that liquid gold that the elite so desperately crave... oil.
With a style comparable to that magical touch of Powell and Pressburger, De Sica’s inventive approach to class struggle in MIRACLE IN MILAN takes on a totally different feeling: courageous rebellion, creativity and play in the face of deep inequality.
Straight out of an Alice Guy-Blaché film, our hero Totò (Francesco Golisano) is introduced in infancy, naked and wailing in a cabbage patch. He's discovered by a charming elderly milkmaid who raises him as her own until she passes on and Totò is let loose upon the Neorealist landscape. However our protagonist is anything but a Bruno or Umberto; he triumphantly enters the working world saying “Buongiorno!” to every solemn stranger he passes as he makes his way towards the shanty town where he will begin to build a life.
Totò turns the tough situations that his community of squatters face into games with the children and finds humor in just about every unfortunate circumstance. Buoyantly he traverses his new world until one day two landowners discover this well-established slum village and threaten to demolish it. This seems like it could be the end of the community, but the two men are overcome by the strength of Totò and his neighbors, agreeing to let them stay. That is, until digging a hole for a maypole, they discover the land contains that liquid gold that the elite so desperately crave... oil.
With a style comparable to that magical touch of Powell and Pressburger, De Sica’s inventive approach to class struggle in MIRACLE IN MILAN takes on a totally different feeling: courageous rebellion, creativity and play in the face of deep inequality.