Cinema DNA
Miracle in Milan
1 film
Films it shaped
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E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Atlas note
Steven Spielberg named Vittorio De Sica's Miracle in Milan as the direct visual ancestor of E.T.'s bicycle-across-the-moon shot. De Sica's film ends with the poor taking flight on flying broomsticks. Spielberg transforms this into Elliott and his friends cycling through the moon on bikes, a direct quotation, legally approved, of De Sica's image of transcendence through childhood innocence. Miracle in Milan is available on Criterion Channel.