Miracle in Milan (1951)

Truly Dreadful Film

Redundant and unnecessary.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

lovely. it is first word about this film. fantastic, tender, gentle, dream, it is a sentimental gem. and this is important for a gray , cold world. parable, social manifesto in sweet colors, fairy tale, it is a piece of clay for its viewer. because it is difficult to define it. so, essential is the warm emotion. the performance of Emma Gramatica. and extraordinary Toto in which the young Francesco Golisano gives all pure nuances of life joy. after many years from first meeting, it is not exactly one of my favorites but ideal drug for gloomy days. a different de Sica, it is shining and naive. or, only, isle for the short escape after stressful moments. a kind of Life is wonderful but with little substantial dose of miracle flavor.maybe, a form of Charlot universe slice. like return in childhood womb.

This is one of those projects that when you consider each piece, you know it is a mess, essentially worthless. The story is alarmingly close to an afterschool morality play. The style is deliberately confusing if you know the filmmaker and the neorealist dogma of his work and others of the school. The camera is kept in a fixed location, often stationary, and though there are some special effects, the cinematography is less than ordinary. The acting and presentation is after the style of silent films. The thing has little coherence and is comically episodic. There is an offensively artificial sweetness to it.Yet, when you put it all together, it works well enough for you to not be annoyed by it. And that's pretty remarkable because the coherence is in the parts, not within any part (like story) which is of less importance than the whole. This story actually seems intent on destroying the relevance of story. A statue comes alive; a mother's love is unfinished; characters in a shantytown become visible and not. A magical power alters much of what matters, but with no causal result. Oil is discovered, but no one cares.Yet it works. As a historical artifact, it matters because it seems to have released the Italians from the dreadful rut they were in and allowed Fellini to do his turn at magical narrative folding. Other than that, I cannot recommend it but for the experience of seeing the value of imagining each bit with the same character and having the film work just on that coherence. Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

De Sica is becoming one of my favorite directors, but this one was a hit-and-miss for me. A grinning idiot youth becomes the leader of a community of illegal settlers in a deserted area outside Milano. It is a detailed and sparkling story of the innocent poor masses, complete with evil capitalists and trigger-happy police forces, but slowly it evolves into a magic fantasy tale, as the boy wonder Toto develops unlimited superhero powers. I had it up to here with the ever-smiling Toto after 10 minutes, and when the magic took over, I was left in the dust. There were so many wonderfully orchestrated shots, so many good characters among the settlers, that I kept thinking it was a waste the movie wasn't more serious with its material. The coupling of neorealism and fantasy comes out more as an experiment of the "look-what-we-can-also-do-mum" sort than as a fully developed piece of work/art.

This movie was my first touch with Mr Sica so I really didn't know what to expect. But what I saw just broke all my expectations - in a good way.The storyline is not complex and shows us a life of found boy- orphan and particularly his connection into the community of poor people who together built themselves a hood of simple metal plate houses. This little city in another city lives own life and things are going fine. But one day there is a water resource found and a rich nobles man is getting interested in the buying the place. But as the title of the movie hints - there is a miracle taking place. Our character gets a wonder dove from his dead mother. What is he going to do to protect his friends and all built city as well?It was just a masterpiece of natural comedy. There is shown the behavior of poor people and how money and property can talk and play with people. Also many funny moments and scenes are included - at the beginning with the spot where sun is shining and many more.So according to the fact that I m not a comedy lover you should see this movie because I liked it much I