Rocco and his brothers [Masters of Cinema] [1960] [DVD]

Luchino Visconti is one of the great Italian directors whose career spanned everything from arguably the first neo-realist film ("Ossessione" made in the early 1940's) to his later more elaborate works (such as his great adaptation of Lampedusa's "The Leopard" and the extraordinary 4-hour "Ludwig" about the mad, misunderstood last King of Bavaria).

Visconti made this film in order to try and address the issue of the divide between the south and the north of Italy, but also (as the title hints) as a tribute to one of his favourite authors the German novelist Thomas Mann - the aforementioned title of "Rocco and his Brothers" echoes Mann's monumental biblical novel "Joseph and his Brothers", and the story of the decline of a family has some links to Mann's most famous novel "Buddenbrooks".

The film relates the fortunes of a family (a widowed mother and her 5 sons) who move from rural southern Italy to Milan and try to establish a new life in a strange city. Although it runs for nearly three hours (many of Visconti's movies are quite lengthy, and this is not the longest), the film enthrals because of great direction and performances (especially from Alain Delon in an early role as the eponymous brother, and Annie Girardot as the prostitute Nadia who has such a devasting effect on the family). Although no longer capable of provoking the scandal that accompanied its first release, there are several enormously powerful scenes here that have lost none of their shocking impact.

This is an excellent DVD release from the always reliable Masters of Cinema series - the film looks in great shape (unlike the previously very poor DVD transfers available) and is correctly presented, there is a substantial booklet with essays and interviews with Visconti, and a supplementary disk featuring some excellent subsidiary material (including an hour long RAI documentary on the life and work of Visconti, and a wonderful interview with Annie Girardot).

I can recommend Geoffrey Nowell-Smith's book on Visconti (now available in an updated edition) as an excellent companion to this film for anyone wanting to know more about Visconti, and Masters of Cinema have released a first-rate DVD presentation of another Visconti film "Bellissima".

This is a deep, emotional study of a poor Southern Italian family of a widowed mother and her five sons, who come north to Milan, to find work. It is a family drama about this close-knit family. The main protagonists are the mother and two of her sons, Simone and Rocco. Simone has some success in the boxing ring and falls in love with a neighbour Nina, who is a prostitute. However, Simone brings violence from the boxing ring into his private life. His girlfiend leaves him and some time later, she gets involved with the gentle, decent Rocco. Eventually, there is a tragedy and the family is devastated. Although a somewhat long film, my interest did not falter at any time. The film is beautifully shot in black and white, brilliantly acted (particularly the mother played by Greek actress Katina Paxinou) and I came away thinking about its subject matter for a very long time afterwards. A good justification for my 5-star rating.

Visconti's 1960 film is an epic 170-minute-long contemporary portrayal of a family of five brothers moving with their mother to Milan from the rural south of Italy. Indeed, the opening scene sees the family arrive at Milan's railway station as part of that strong but intermittent migration of Italians to the industrial north in search of jobs and a better style of living.

It is one of those riveting epic Italian films of family, ostensibly focussing on each of the five brothers in turn: Vicenzo (the fiancé who made the trip in advance and intends to marry Ginetta, played by a young Claudia Cardinale); Simone (the boxer, an unredeemable thief and murderer), Rocco (the soldier, a drifter through life, a dreamer and romantic); Ciro (the engineer, level-headed, hard-working, conforming readily to the ethical norms of their new home); and Luca (the youngest, the one who witnesses, the one who also represents the future - indeed, the film's final frame sees him running into the distance).

By trying to address each brother in turn, the film ensures it is something more than a family soap opera, but inevitably each brother's life affects those of the others, and so what we end up with is a more or less seamless mesh of family ups and downs. Fraternal loyalties are tested to extreme degrees in their new urban environment. The centre of the film revolves around the relationship between the proud and reckless Simone (Renato Salvatore) and the selfless and pretty Rocco (Alain Delon) and their tussle over the flirtatious Nadia (Annie Girardot). The tussle leads to a tragic denouement played out in a brutally operatic style at the film's end. This scene is the only real element of melodrama in what is mostly a film of realism.

The film was groundbreaking for many of the actors involved, especially Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale. As in many (most?) of Visconti's films, I felt that there was an unspoken homoerotic element, in this case that of Rocco for his elder brother Simone. No matter what physical or emotional brutality Simone inflicted on Rocco (and others), Rocco was always ready to forgive and assist.

A Franco-Italian production, the sound options are either Italian or French dub, but both with English subtitles. In the original Italian, both Alain Delon and Annie Girardot had their voices dubbed, as well as the mother Rosaria, played by Greek actor Katina Paxinou. Where there are long scenes between Delon and Girardot, I found myself slipping easily between the Italian and French versions; this was also useful where strong emotions were at play.

This is a review of the Masters of Cinema release of this film. It comes with an informative forty-page booklet with articles by Guido Aristarco and Luchino Visconti himself from the January 1961 edition of the journal `Films & Filming', and an interview with Visconti originally published in the April 1961 edition of the French journal `Cinema'. In the latter, Visconti explains why Rocco is the name in the film's title instead of one of the other brothers. "Rocco's drama is ... double because in addition to his own suffering, he takes upon himself the misery of every other member of his family." He goes on to say that, "I had no intention ... of treating this film as a melodrama; for me, it is a realistic fantasy."

The Masters of Cinema release has a second DVD chock-a-block with other extras. These comprise two short film newsreels from 1960, including the marriage of Renato Salvatore to Annie Girardot; a trailer; a sixteen-minute 2003 French documentary featuring Claudia Cardinale that covers the making of the film; interviews with the cinematographer (1999, 27 minutes), Annie Girardot (2003, 23 minutes), and Claudia Cardinale (1999, 23 minutes); and an hour-long documentary (1999) on the director himself, produced by RAI and which gives a concise overview of his life and works. All in all, then, a very full package indeed.