In this small neorealist masterpiece, Magnani plays a peasantwoman who allows a young vagabond (played by Federico Fellini, who alsowrote the story) to seduce her, thinking he is Joseph. She announces the"miracle" of her conception-she is convinced that she willgive birth to Christ-but the other peasants ridicule her. The film wassimilarly ridiculed by unpoetic minds and condemned as blasphemous(ironically, not in Rome but in Cardinal Spellman's New York, becomingthe source for the Supreme Court's 1952 decision that guaranteed FirstAmendment rights on the screen). Now a forty-year-old"scandal," The Miracle can be seen for the beauty of itsChristian parable-Rossellini's sensual Catholicism, Fellini'slyricism-and for Magnani's truly inspired performance.