THE MIRACLE (IL MIRACOLO)
Italy, 2003, 95 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Edoardo Winspear.
The Miracle is set in contemporary Taranto in Southern Italy. The focus is on a small boy, an ordinary boy who clashes with his parents, spits on passers-by of his apartment_ When he goes on a bike ride, he is run over but seemingly miraculously, survives without injury. In hospital, he touches the chest of a man who has died and the man revives.
The film shows the consequence of this power on the boy. He is perfectly ordinary, agrees with a classmate to touch his grandfather - who eventually dies - but is happy in the time given him for health. The boy's parents clash, the father is worried about a business deal and money, the mother irritated with the father and wanting the media to take up the story. The media publish articles and are aiming to have a television interview. In the meantime, the girl who knocked the boy down and went off without stopping, visits him in hospital, he follows her, does not identify her to the police and they become friends. The girl herself clashes with her mother. The culmination is the girl absolutely frustrated, suicidal - and a visit from the boy.
The film takes the supernatural elements very lightly, wonders what would happen if a boy had this kind of power and how people would react. It does not go the way of pious pilgrimages and superstitious devotion.
1. The impact of the film? Audience expectations about miracles and their possibilities? The credibility of this story and the boy's experience and power?
2. The settings in Taranto, the modern industrial city, the city as a character? The site for the building for the father? The apartment blocks? The streets, the centre? Authentic atmosphere? Musical score?
3. The portrait of the boy: seeing him first spitting, his relationship with his mother, his angry father, taking the bike, riding and being knocked down? His seeing the girl? In hospital, his recovery? Unable to sleep, touching the man who revived? His going home, his father not believing him, his mother's attitude? At school, telling his cousin, telling the boys? The boy taking him to see his grandfather, touching the grandfather, the grandfather reviving, enjoying life, going for walks? His collapse and his death? The media? The girl coming to the hospital, the line-up and his not identifying with her, going to speak with her? The growing friendship, seeking him out at school, his giving her a gift? Their time together, the swim? His wondering about his powers? The build-up to the interview, his parents' clash, his not wanting to do the interview, going to see the girl - climbing in the window just as she wants to kill herself? His future?
4. His parents, their bickering, mother's devotion yet her interest in the money a interviews? The father, the building site, his being in debt? Continually cranky? In hospital, at home? His attack on the media? Typical parents?
5. Cintia, hitting Tonio, stopping and looking, her boyfriend, her decision to go on? Seeing the truck which would pick up the boy? Her anger, going to the hospital, the police seeing her, her running away and getting on her bike? Seeking him out at the school? At the line-up and his not identifying with her, their discussions? The friendship, the visits, the swim? His devotion to her? At home, her continually on the move, the discovery of her mother, her mother abandoning her when she was young? Their trying to live together, getting into the bed, the warmth, cooking - yet her mother on the phone, the man coming from the north to take her away? Cintia and her ultimate exasperation, smashing the room, about to take the poison_ her future?
6. People at school, the boys, the priest and Tonio helping him and his healthy scepticism? The media, the interviews, the preparation for the television?
7. A contemporary story, the experience of death, the light, a transformation, the possibility of seeing God, of discovering powers, of healing, of the supernatural?
