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Cinema

Miracle in Milan, Vittorio de Sica BFI Film Season

On 08 Aug 15, 3:50 PM – 5:40 PM
On 10 Aug 15, 8:45 PM – 10:15 PM

Highlights from the BFI film season include Miracle in Milan, Vittorio de Sica's 1951 comic parable. 

By CW Contributor on 15/7/2015

Vittorio de Sica, Miracle in Milan film still
Vittorio de Sica, Miracle in Milan film still
Miracle in Milan, Vittorio de Sica BFI Film Season Miracle in Milan, Vittorio de Sica BFI Film Season Caroline Halstead
As the BFI host a season on Italian neo realist films by auteur actor-director Vittorio de Sica, we select our favourites:
Vittorio de Sica, Miracle in Milan film: BFI Southbank
A shift in tone from his earlier works, this film has more charm and eccentricity than the other post war films in de Sica's repertoire. A bizarre realist fantasy, Miracle in Milan tells the story of a kind old woman, Lolotta (Emma Gramatica) who, on discovering a baby hidden in her cabbage patch, raises him as her own.
An Italian neorealist film
When Lolotta dies the now young boy Totò (Francesco Golisano) is forced into orphanages, and from there, into the streets of Italy. At eighteen, he falls in with a group of disenfranchised homeless in a suburban shanty: when the ghost of his lost mother appears, to grant Totò's wishes to help the dispossessed, Totò takes on a Christ-like persona, liberating his peers from the tragedy of their circumstances.
Unconventional lightness of touch
A Slumdog Millionaire of post war Italian cinema, Miracle in Milan is a fable of human endeavour. Written by often-time collaborator Cesare Zavattini, the film continues in the vein of his earlier works of neo realist cinema with de Sica, exploring economic instability in the framework of catholicism and capitalism, and rife with political polemic. 
The film has a contemporaneous feel: its final scene, showing a pair of orphans taking off on magic broomsticks, influenced the likes of Spielberg's E.T.
Whilst Miracle in Milan has more comedy at its heart than many of de Sica's later works and retains the lightness of touch from his days as matinee cinema's heart-throb, an underlying sense of barbarity peppers Miracle in Milan's narrative.
De Sica's film shows intense understanding of human fallibility and the political struggles in a stringently religious society. A under-appreciated classic. 


Looking for more?
Read our selection of films in the Vittorio de Sica retrospective



What Miracle in Milan, Vittorio de Sica BFI Film Season
Where BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, Southbank, London, SE1 8XT | MAP
Nearest tube Waterloo (underground)
When On 08 Aug 15, 3:50 PM – 5:40 PM
On 10 Aug 15, 8:45 PM – 10:15 PM
Price £10
Website Click here to go to the BFI website.



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  • Competition

    A CHANCE TO WIN

    The BFI and Culture Whisper have joined forces, offering one lucky reader the chance to win a host of prizes in association with the Vittorio de Sica Italian Cinema season. These include:

    - Two tickets to any film in the BFI De Sica season this August.

    - A copy of The Italian Cinema Book – an essential guide to the most important historical, aesthetic and cultural aspects of Italian cinema, from 1895 to the present day.

    - A copy of the BFI's artwork for the Vittorio de Sica season

    - A selection of DVDs from Arrow Films including Bertolucci’s masterpiece The Conformist, plus Giuseppe Tornatore’s loving homage to the cinema: Cinema Paradiso.

    follow us & retweet to enter

  • 2-4-1 tickets

    Culture Whisper members can take advantage of our 2-4-1 ticket offer. To enjoy two tickets for the price of one simply quote DeSica241 online, in person or over the phone (020 7928 3232). Click here for more information from the BFI.

    What the critics say

    GUARDIAN

    'It was such a terrific encapsulation of a young person's realisation that there is a world beyond the one lived in – reality on the one hand, and the possibility of anything on the other. That, for me, is what film is about – it can reflect what you know, but also show you what you had never before imagined.'

    Tom Lamont

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Miracle in Milan film clip

Vittorio De Sica

BFI

Season

Italian Cinema

South Bank

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