Sometimes watching an old classic might feel like homework. A three hour black and white movie seems like a heavy undertaking. Then you watch a film of that length and vintage, and the time passes by quicker than you thought because you are deeply invested in the characters and storytelling. So it was with Luchino Visconti’s Rocco And His Brothers (1960; Rocco e i suoi fratelli), which I watched one Saturday night over a weekend, an Italian neo-realist epic that is available to stream on Stan (a beautiful 2015 remastered edition). It’s about a widowed mother Rosaria Parondi (Katina Paxinou) and her five sons who move from the South and their poor rural village to the city of Milan, joining the influx of people trying to find work and money. Beginning with neo-realistic observations of how the Parondi are belittled and marginalised for coming from the South, and have to find a place in a state housing apartment building, the brothers wake up one morning to see snow in the street, happy that there is a call for work from street sweepers. As the months proceed, the appeal of boxing is offered as a way to earn money as well as status, and is something that makes the shiftless Simone (Renato Salvatori) a star. Rocco (Alain Delon) is the soulful saint who longs for the hardships of their old life for how the family was closer; he winds up joining the army as well as taking up boxing. Both brothers are drawn to their neighbour Nadia (Annie Girardot), a forward free spirit who becomes self-employed as a sex worker in order to make money and gain independence from her oppressive family. The eldest brother Vincenzo (Spyros Fokas) begins a family with Ginetti (Claudia Cardinale) who is from a wealthier family. There is also the studious Ciro (Max Cartier) who works hard to study at college and the youngest brother, a boy, Luca (Rocco Vidolazzi) who takes up work as an errand boy. At certain points, the name of a character will appear on screen, announcing a new chapter in this narrative epic, following the changing fortunes of the brothers and shifting dynamics within the family as they become accustomed to urban life. Brilliant performances from Delon and Girardot in particular (both French actors who were dubbed), and Salvatori as the brother whose life spirals out of control due to crime. The characters wrestle and wail with monumental emotions. Even the most sympathetic characters make wrong, destructive decisions, and there’s a complexity in how everyone seems to be shaped by their past and the different values they struggle with. Overall, you see where filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese took their cues from with the clear influence of Rocco And His Brothers; for example, Nino Rotta provides the music, which inspired Coppola to ask him to produce the score for The Godfather. An emotional, involving knock-out. Recommended. Warning: There are some harrowing sequences involving sexual assault and murder, so viewer discretion be advised.
VHS Tracking 