Miracle à l'italienne

Nino Manfredi was an actor who made interesting flicks :"pane e cioccolate" is probably the most memorable.

"Per grazia ricevuta" might be less palatable for a mainstream audience.Actually ,it will mainly appeal to people who were brought up catholics (and changed totally afterward) .The precedent user wrote about his "confirmation day" actually it's his "solemn communion " day.This is minor quibble:the scene when the boy chokes on host is a very funny metaphor .

A man tried to take his own life and is rushed to the hospital where he remembers scenes of the past ,most of them dealing with religion.

The first flashback is the best of all:any viewer who 's been through it all,Sunday school,pious pictures,bigotry,the first time you've gone to confession ,will go for a ride in the Time Machine.Manfredi spices his memories with dark irony:the auntie telling her nephew that her night visitor (her lover) was certainly the village's favorite saint.

The rest is more uneven but if you really want to know WHAT the Extreme-Unction is and WHY catholics do it ,it's the movie you've got to see.Manfredi draws an interesting parallel between the priest's and the doctor's gestures.Another strong scene is the " wedding" which echoes to the communion sequence.

An interesting work ,but you've got to have an interest in religion to fully appreciate it.

I certainly hope this is the movie I remember. There seems to be no plot summary on the site but the title and the director seem right. Long ago I worked in a New York movie theater while going to school and I have this gentle memory of a beautiful story about a young boy who falls from a cliff on his confirmation day. When he comes back to life, it is taken as a miracle and he goes to live with the monks. It is a very bitter sweet and touching film with a scene I will always remember of the girl he loves walking through a lamp shop and all the lights turning on, one by one, as she walks towards him. All these years I had thought that the lead actor was Giancarlo Giannini. I guess I must have been wrong. I would really love to see this movie again and recomend it highly.