MIRACLE IN MILAN (ITALY/1951)

One of several memorable collaborations between director Vittorio De Sica and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini (Bicycle Thieves, Shoe-Shine, The Gold of Naples, Umberto D). It was named Best Foreign Film of 1951 by the New York Critics Circle and won the top prize at the 5th Cannes Film Festival (tied with Alf Sjoberg's Miss Julie). A thoroughly charming neorealist mix of satire and fantasy. Toto was abandoned as a baby and found by a kind, old lady in her cabbage patch. She raised him until age 7 when she died and he was placed in an orphanage. Released at 16, he joins Milan's homeless and becomes the leader of a shantytown community built on unused land on the outskirts of the city. The community is a model of democracy and egalitarianism. Then the owner of the land wants to develop it and orders the police to evict them. The poor and destitute living there resist as much as they can. Then the old lady who raised Toto descends from heaven to give him a magical, wish-fulfilling dove. Miracle in Milan comes across like a mix of Chaplin, Tati, and early Fellini. Inexplicably, it's not available on dvd in North America.