Marcelin, pain et vin

A baby loses his parents and is left at the door to a monastery. The monks take him in and he grows into a mischievous but essentially good little boy. One day he sneaks into the attic and sees a life-sized image of Jesus on the cross...

For pre-teens and younger, a parent should probably watch it with them, since some children will be disturbed by the ending. With understanding, this film helps the viewer to grow a little in faith, hope and love.

... well, that is all I really wanted to say, but IMDb now requires ten lines of text for a review. I noticed the early reviews of Marcelino were extremely negative. If you have a lot of anger towards Christ or the Church, you will *not* like this film since it shows different types of people turning their hearts towards Jesus to varying degrees. This is not sinister propaganda, but the way the world really is. Christians are not the monsters you imagine them to be. If the Nazis *had* made films like this, as one reviewer suggested, instead of the inspirations to resentment and violence they actually did make, the world might have been a better place. Peace to all.

I feel almost provoked to comment on this film here, and I say this not as an especially religious person (which I am not), but as someone who feels that a film should not be unfairly criticized because of someone's faulty--or would it be more accurate to say willfully (?) -- distorted summary of the plot.

SPOILERS AHEAD

To begin with, Marcelino is bitten by the scorpion while he is playing outside the monastery, but at no point in the film does he ask to see the crucifix for any reason. He has been frightened by tales of a "bogeyman" in the attic by the monks, who wish him to stay away from it. OUT OF CURIOSITY, and for no other reason, he ventures in, sees the Christ figure, thinks it is the feared bogeyman, and tears back down the stairs. (The figure, incidentally, is a beautiful wooden carving, not gory in the least.)

After an unfortunate incident, in which he is taken to a festival and unwittingly causes a commotion by accidentally letting some animals run wild, the new mayor, an enemy of the monks who have raised Marcelino, swears to shut down the monastery. Marcelino is given the silent treatment by the monks, and it is then that he goes again to the attic, realizes the "bogeyman" is only a statue of Christ, remarks that it looks hungry, steals some bread, and offers it to the statue. It is then that a miracle occurs---the statue comes to life, eats the bread, and eventually, because of Marcelino's repeated visits, becomes Marcelino's teacher and confidant (Marcelino realizes who he is). And the vision is *not* a hallucination. The statue's final act in the film is intended only as a reward for Marcelino's kind actions, and it is done at Marcelino's innocent, but completely self-aware, request.

This is by no means a vicious, sadistic film; it is a beautiful, gentle one. It is a pity that there are those who would distort its meaning.

My Dad loved this film My Dad lost his parents and sister in the same month when he was just 5 years old

I don't know if that is why he has almost a reverence for this movie, but he always would look through the channels and the tv guide to find out if it would be airing during the Christmas season. Dad passed away just about a week before Christmas in 2002. He was 81 Each year as Christmas approaches, I find myself looking through the channels and the tv listings to find out if it will be airing during the Christmas season. The actor playing Marcelino did an amazing job expressing innocence, wonder, and an inner sadness when remembering his Mom who he never really got a chance to know. The cinematography...angles, vistas etc. are top notch. The short scenes make the film seem almost dreamlike, jumping from one short poignant topic to the other. The simple, peaceful presentation contrasts to a lot of other films which scream at you to keep you paying attention. This film does not need to do that. Next December, I will find myself scanning the channels and looking through the tv listings.....

Wow, this was stunning, both in photography and in content. Here's a nice, old-fashioned "religious story" you rarely see anymore. The English title goes under "The Miracle Of Marcelino."

It's a simple tale of a group of monks who discover a baby at their monastery doorstep one morning and then raise the boy. They try to find suitable parents for the infant but are unsuccessful. The infant scenes don't run too long because, before you know it, they have fast-forwarded it to when the boy was six years of age....and that's where he stays until the end of the film.

Pablito Calvo as the title character, Marcelino," is excellent. Kudos to cinematographer Heinrich Gartner for beautiful black-and-white photography. The DVD transfer was outstanding, too. The lighting, particularly on faces, is terrific.

Other reviewers here at IMDb, such as Albert Sanchez Moreno, have described the story nicely. I will just add I found it oddly captivating the entire way and very touching and moving in the last 20 minutes or so, after the boy discovers the big statue of Christ and begins communicating with Him. Yeah, I'm sure it looks really far-fetched to almost everyone, especially non-Believers, but I enjoyed and marveled at the end of this film.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the monks in here and why they would "warn" the young boy against going up in the attic, where the statue is located, unless they somehow supernaturally knew what was going to happen.....yet they still should have put their trust in Christ, anyway. Their actions are puzzling at times. There is a real mystery to this story overall, anyway. Not being Catholic, maybe I missed something in the translation. This is a very "Catholic" film but a Christ-believing Protestant as I am can still fully appreciate this story, too, as much as anyone, and I did.

You'll never find this at a rental store but those you are curious, you might want to add it to your queue if you belong to one of those mail-in rental programs. This film was a collaboration of Spanish and Italian filmmakers, I think. There was a color re-make in the early '90s, but I haven't seen it.

It's a film of tender "innocence" like few I've ever seen, which makes it very memorable.

A film for ever in my brain. Not a bad thing for a film. I saw it for the first time when I was 8 and stayed with me always. I'm amused by some of the comments leveling this beautiful tale as "sick" and "twisted". I imagine it's the power of goodness that usually provokes more outcries than the power of evil. The film is what it is, no disguises to send its message as in Forrest Gump for instance. The film is a masterpiece no matter how you look at it and Pablito Calvo, the Marcelino at the center of it all, gives a performance that goes beyond any performance of any child actor has gone before.