Milos Forman recommends Miracle in Milan

I had never heard about Miracle in Milan before Milos Forman recommended it in City Secrets Movies. He writes: " . . . today, after almost fifty years, I still remember the faces of the extras in this film more vividly than the faces of many leading performers in the hundreds of films I have seen since." Something to remember when you watch the film

Miracle in Milan (Miracolo a Milano)
Vittorio De Sica
1951

In the '50s, when I was a film student at the university in Prague, the only Western films the Communist government approved for viewing by the general public were the Italian neorealist films. To be clear, they were welcomed because they were critical of capitalist society and this served the Communist propaganda machines well. One day, in the screening room of my school, I saw a new film: Vittorio De Sica's Miracle in Milan. After that day, whenever the film was shown at school, I was there. More than twenty times.

The film is a tragicomedy, a bittersweet fairy tale for adults about Milan's homeless, portrayed with such gusto and understanding of human nature that it took my breath away. Touching and funny, disturbing and soothing . . . there are so many gripping observations of human peculiarities, and such brilliant characterizations of personalities that today, after almost fifty years, I still remember the faces of the extras in this film more vividly than the faces of many leading performers in the hundreds of films I have seen since.

A little tragicomic history: despite the film's strong socialist sentiments, the Czech government still refused to allow Miracle in Milan to be shown to the general public. Their reason: at the end of the film, the homeless people, defeated, seize the brooms of Milan's street sweepers and fly off, flying higher and higher, toward a place where life is more just. The censors concluded from the position of Milan's Cathedral that they were heading toward the West-reason enough to ban the film.

Milos Forman

Czechoslovakian director Milos Forman directed his first English-language film, Taking Off (1971), winning a number of awards, including a Special Jury Prize at Cannes. Following this triumph, Forman directed the decathlon sequences of the multi-national Olympic documentary Visions of Eight (1973), then moved on to what many consider his masterpiece, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), which one Oscars in all five major categories, including Best Director.  He won the Oscar again for his direction of Amadeus, a liberal retelling of the life of Mozart (as seen through the eyes of Antonio Salieri).  Forman served as director of Columbia University's film division, and directed such critically acclaimed films as Hair (1979), The People vs. Larry Flint (1996), and Man on the Moon (1999).