The miracle of Milan

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Movie
German title The miracle of Milan
Original title Miracolo a Milano
Country of production Italy
original language Italian
Publishing year 1951
length 100 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Vittorio De Sica
script Cesare Zavattini
Suso Cecchi D'Amico
Vittorio de Sica
Mario Chiari
Adolfo Franci
production Vittorio De Sica
music Alessandro Cicognini
camera Aldo Graziati
cut Eraldo Da Roma
occupation

The Miracle of Milan (also Miracle of Milan , original title: Miracolo a Milano ) is an Italian film by Vittorio De Sica from 1951. The socially critical film with fairytale elements is based on the novella The Miracle of Bamba (original title: Totò il buono) by Cesare Zavattini , who also worked on the script. On June 13, 1952, the work, which premiered in Italy on February 8, 1951, was shown for the first time in German-language cinemas.

action

Signora Lolotta, an old lady, finds a baby in the cabbage in her garden and raises it like her own son. When she dies, the young Totò has to go to an orphanage, which he will only leave as a young man.

The naive, friendly Totò tries to find work in Milan, but, like many others, ends up in a slum on the outskirts of the metropolis. Despite the bleak conditions there, Totò doesn’t let himself get down with his positive attitude towards life. He makes a lot of friends. When oil is found on the site of the slum, the dwellings are to be torn down and make way for a conveyor system. With the help of a magical dove, which his deceased foster mother - against the will of the heavenly authorities, embodied by two angels - repeatedly sends him, Totò and the slum dwellers join forces to initially prevent the planned demolition of the district.

But in the real world there is no place for the modest happiness of the slum dwellers. Totò and his colleagues escape the bleak reality and finally ride together on brooms into the sky above Milan. They sing in a choir: "We need a piece of ground, no matter how small, and then a hut to be happy ..."

Production, background

The film is a co-production by Vittorio De Sica and Cesare Zavattini, who had already made several films of neorealism (e.g. bicycle thieves and shoe shiners ) together. When they came to Milan in 1951, they were aware of the negative sentiment from the conservatives and progressives. The film was described by some as too Catholic and comforting; others called it a manifesto of a social upheaval with communist influence. "Since the real conditions had not improved, only the flight into the realm of the imagination helped," said Ronald M. Hahn et al.

To accommodate the special effects was Enzo Barboni responsible as "EB Clucher" became a well-known director himself later. Towards the end of the film, the actors fly through Milan with brooms like those used by street sweepers. This scene is said to have inspired Steven Spielberg for his bicycle flight scene in ET - The Extra Terrestrial (1982).

publication

The film, which premiered on February 8, 1951 in Italy, was presented on April 11, 1951 at the Cannes International Film Festival . In 1951 it also started in France, Sweden and the USA. The international title is: Miracle in Milan . In 1952, it was published in Portugal, Denmark, Belgium, Finland, Spain (Madrid), the United Kingdom (London), Japan, and West Germany. It premiered in Austria in October 1954. In the German Democratic Republic he was seen for the first time on December 28, 1978 on television ( DFF 1 ). The ARD showed the film for the first time on October 14, 1962.

In Japan, the film was also shown on November 24, 2001 at the Grande Retrospettiva del Cinema Italiano. It was revived in Greece in August 2013, in Poland in March 2014 and in France in a restored version in November 2015.

The film was released on December 11, 2015 with a German soundtrack from Pidax film media Ltd. in the “Pidax Film Classic” category. (Alive AG) released on DVD.

criticism

In his work "The Power and Magic of Film" from 1959, Rudolf Oertel considered The Miracle of Milan to be "despite all the critics one of the happiest syntheses of reality and fairy tales that film has ever produced."

Curt Maronde judged in 1951 for Die Zeit : “It's a shame that this film full of humor and satire, bizarre ideas and magnificent photography lacks the plausible background that even a fabulous world cannot do without. Kintopp is magic in itself. When the director abolishes all cosmic laws, lets donkeys fly and ghosts talk, it should only be done with René Clair's light, virtuoso hand. With de Sica, the excursions into the supernatural are overdosed and blow up the whole fable. ”Maronde, however, admitted the film to big scenes:“ Toto's shy love for Edvige; Mom Lolotta's funeral; the poor who move together like forest animals in the single ray of sunshine that breaks through the Milanese fog as if on a holy image; the homeless person who wins the prize of the gastronomic lottery and silently feeds his chicken under the starving eyes of the other vagabonds. ”And finally:“ Wherever de Sica does not want to be a sociologist, politician, philosopher and poet at the same time, he proves himself again once as a magician, who paints an original, courageous picture of the time with excellently managed actors, among whom there is not a single 'star' apart from Emma Gramatica (Lolotta). "

The reason given by the Evangelical Church , which awarded the film the “Film of the Month” award at the time, was: “This Italian film, which was made based on the novella 'Toto il buono' by Cesare Zavattini, is a modern fairy tale. With his own sense of social responsibility, director de Sica made him a human and artistically meaningful statement. Politically inclined, glorifying the power of the pure heart, this film deserves a particularly urgent recommendation. "

The German wave meant the film had de Sica "the serious and melancholic paths of Italian neorealism, that film aesthetic that [showed] the people in devastated Europe in all its misery after the end of World War II left. Today the film looks like a socialist fairy tale, a mixture of magical realism and utopian political parable. But one should not be mistaken and believe that the situation, the gap between rich and poor, would have changed for the better 65 years after the film was made. Maybe in Europe, but not in most other parts of the world. In this respect, 'The Miracle of Milan' can still be described as a very topical film ”.

At Wissen.de it is said: “With this film, De Sica succeeds in form and content of a touching masterpiece whose fairytale traits overcome neorealism. His film is a parable on the need to overcome the contradictions between rich and poor in the western industrialized countries. "

“A song of praise to kindness and helpfulness, rich in poetic and humane values. One of the immortal masterpieces of film art. "

- Lexicon of international film

“Maybe the best movie I've ever seen. With a brief description, a tight concept and consistent. And: very funny! "

- Walter Kempowski

Awards (selection)

literature

  • Cesare Zavattini : The miracle of Bamba (original title: Totò il buono) . German by Stefanie Weiss, pictures by Dorlis Meyer. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1974, 89 pages, ISBN 3-499-20050-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lexicon of Fantasy Films. Munich 1986, p. 563
  2. ↑ Miracles of Milan DVD Pidax classic film
  3. ↑ Curt Maronde: The miracle in Milan In: Die Zeit No. 17/1951 of April 26, 1951.
  4. ↑ The Miracle of Milan (Miracolo a Milano) at filmdesmonats.de
  5. ↑ Social Tales: The Miracle of Milan at dw.com
  6. ↑ The Miracle of Milan at Wissen.de
  7. ↑ The Miracle of Milan. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. ↑ Walter Kempowski: If you can do that well! Records 1956-1970 . Munich: Knaus 2012: p. 55