Vittorio De Sica-Miracolo a Milano (1951)

Following The Bicycle Thief, Vittorio De Sica’s second effort as a producer-director was acclaimed internationally, winning the Grand Prize at Cannes, and voted Best Foreign Film by the New York Film Critics in 1951. The story of a saint-like orphan boy who rises up to fight for the rights of vagabonds living in a shanty town threatened by a greedy developer, De Sica adds a playful, fairytale dimension to the film's grim social realism. Anticipating the surrealism of Fellini’s later work, Miracle in Milan plays as a neorealist fable, a heart-warming tale of good versus evil as the discarded people of the streets – portrayed by real-life homeless people – challenge the elite that consigned them to poverty. Through it all, the protagonist Toto is offered up as a ray of innocence and hope in a world sullied by avarice and injustice. Umbrella Ent.




This fantasy tale tells of Totò, who is found in a cabbage patch and adopted by an old women named Lolotta. He later moves to an orphanage because Lolotta passes away. The film moves forward to when he's eighteen years of age and Totò (Francesco Golisano) leaves the orphanage and begins to live in a shantytown in Milan. Totò's organizational skills, learned at the orphanage and from Lolotta, brings structure to the colony and brings a sense of small happiness and well being among the depressed folk. Wikipedia



When Totò is given a magic dove by the ghost of his adoptive mother, he uses its powers to grant wishes to those who ask. The dove, however, is taken back by two angels who object to a mortal having possession of it. The land where Totò's and his friends live is taken over by capitalists after oil is found there and they're all taken away to prison in horse-drawn paddy wagons. On the way to prison, however, a dove is returned to Totò and his wish for the freedom of his friends is granted. In a historical cinematic scene they escape into the sky, arguably to heaven, on brooms pinched from street sweepers in a town square. Wikipedia