Miracle in Milan (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

This sweet, uplifting story grabbed me right from the start. Lolotta, a kindly older woman with an exuberant and infectious love for life, finds the infant Toto in her cabbage patch and adopts him. They seem a match made in heaven, and she seems the perfect maternal figure to nurture and expand Toto's gifts for empathy, organization, optimism, fun and leadership. When she dies, Toto moves to an orphanage, eventually moving to live in a shantytown on the outskirts of Milan where he quickly becomes the cohesive force in this financially poor but spiritually rich community. Tension between these creative, loving folks and the upper-crust of Milan leads to the main conflict, the resolution of which is a wonder to behold. A gem of a movie!

If I was forced to choose between the Wizard of Oz and Miracle in Milan as my favorite film, it would be Miracle in Milan.Vittorio DeSica's beautifully acted film from the early 50's is exquisite. You don't even need to understand Italian (it has sub-titles) to watch and understand. That's how brilliant the acting, cinematography and direction is. From the very first scene...make sure you watch carefully, it sets the stage for the movie's progression. I don't want to spoil your discovery of the magic of Miracle Milan. It is a black and white film with a magical realism premise. Very uplifting but not saccharine in the least.

I Love this film. There is an innocence in the fairytale delivery of much of the story. It deals with some serious, basic social issues in a Magical way. It may be simple, but I think this is the beauty of film. It strums a humanistic chord throughout and gently pounds you on the head with it's message.

DVD condition was not good, but the item delivered on time.

What a lovely movie, sometimes so sad - loved the endingThe movie arrived in perfect condition - Thank You

This is one of those films that stay with you forever! Pura bellezza!

I'd like to be able to review this movie, but so far I haven't been able to get my DVD player to accept the disc. I keep getting a disc error message and I've tried two different DVD players. One showed a message on the TV screen "not NTSC", whatever that means. Does anyone have any answers or is it the disc itself?

This is one of those films that really make you feel good.It's the story of a young orphan who is forced to move to a shanty town in bomb-wrecked, post-WWII Milan.The people who now live in those precarious tar-paper shacks are depicted as everyday people who have lost the lives they had made for themselves. Being an honest, good-natured kind of guy, the orphan soon finds himself surrounded by friends. The film is very clear on the point that the vast majority of conflicts can be settled with some commonsense and a bit of goodwill on both sides.But there is a down side to this and the film is worldly-wise enough to point it out: the squatters represent a cross-section of society and class prejudice, selfishness and naked ambition are just as present as anywhere else. When an important oil company decides to purchase the ground beneath the shanty-town, there are those that try to get in good with the company and there are those that decide to stick together and hold out.There are some funny, whimsical bits where magic is used against the company men and policemen who have come to evict the remaining squatters and finally, the poor fly off to a land which the film describes as a place where "Good Morning" really DOES mean "Good Morning". In other words, to a place where people are friendly and above all, sincere.The film has a nice "Christmasey" feel and in fact, it's fairly standard Italian Christmas TV fare in much the same way as "It's A Wonderful Life" in the USA. It'd be OK to watch with kids and the grown-ups would get to watch something a little bit more interesting than the usual kiddie film."Miracle In Milan" demonstrates a firm belief in honest worth no matter what its external appearance may be and an unshakeable conviction in an ultimate reward for goodness, sentiments which it's hard to disagree with.