Rocco And His Brothers Reviews

Moving- great early Visconti

Alain Delon, undoubtedly handsome but not the most elastic of actors, sets a bit of a template for Visconti leading men.(C.F.-dreadful Helmut Berger in The Damned)Striking scenes and visuals in this moving tale of a poor southern Italian family's downward spiral in northern Milan. Boxing scenes and the main plot of two brothers obsession with the same woman play out in a compelling fashion. Nevertheless, having now viewed 4 Visconti films(Death In Venice & The Leopard with Burt Lancaster are the best)he is nowhere near as good as other old Italian masters Rosselini,De Sica & Fellini

GRIPPING DRAMA

E\xtraordinary gritty, truthful, candid portrayal of poverty stricken southern Italians trying to make it in the big city. Compared to American and British films of the time, Rocco is far more adult and honest, not shying away from homosexuality, prostitution and casual violence. The brothers are dominated by an appalling matriarchal monster, worse than any screen patriarch and yet tender and loving at the same time. Superb black and white photography filmed on real streets and real locations, often starkly lit at night making the drama more heightened. It is a three hour film I thought I may not be able to stay awake through mid week but I was utterly gripped, emotionally drained and devestated by the brutal climax. I cannot recomend this highly enough.

The Roots Of Coppola And Scorsese

I've wanted to see this film ever since I read an article in Time Out many years ago that cited it as the inspiration behind Raging Bull. Certainly the similarities are striking - the boxing sub-theme, the triangular relationship between the two brothers. But I also found similarities between Rocco and The Godfather. There's that same sense of displacement and yearing for home (the Parondi family have emigrated from Southern Italy to Milan in the same way that the Corleones left Sicily for New York.), the moral complexities of the relationships among the brothers. And then there's the distrust of outsiders, represented by the prostitute whom two of the brothers fall in love with with ultimately devastating consequences. Rocco And His Brothers is not without its flaws though. I felt that the triangular relationship could have been fleshed out a bit more. The Simone character is quite obviously a main in the throws of unbearable anguish of this woman, yet Rocco doesn't seem to display similar emotional distress until the end even though its obvious that the feelings are there. Without giving anything away, I felt that the ending was ludicrously over-acted and over-emotive and as such took away whatever punch the ending was expected to carry. Still, a cinematic masterpiece that should appeal to fans of Coppola and Scorsese who'd be interested to see where their themes and even cinematography came from.

Mother and Brothers

This is a well crafted film. It is good to be reminded that monochrome is much more subtle and dramatic than colour, and Visconti is a master film maker at his best.

The acting is superb by all, but some of the characters look strange now. Nadia fares badly at the hands of both the saintly Rocco and the diabolic Simone. And I really wanted to shut the mother up more than once when she was at full rant.

However, for all its faults, it is overwhelmingly broad and deep in its scope and set the standard for European, Asian and American films.

It does not seem as long as it is because the pace never flags and you feel as if you inhabit the film more than observe it.

Truly, a masterpiece.

Between a Rocco and a Hard Place

Sprawling attempt to cover some of the problems facing working class Italians during the massive reconstruction of Italy after WW2. The film centres on the lives of a poor southern family who come to the big city - Milan - with their widowed matriarch to forge a new life for themselves in the new world. The film is divided into chapters following the fortunes of each of the five brothers. Some prosper, others become corrupted by the temptations of city life and degenerate into alcoholism and murder. It all looks overly didactic and generally overwrought but there is an appealing period feel to the look of the film although the politics look dated and naive. Like most upper class Marxists, Visconti had a sentimental attachment to the working class but no real understanding - it's a bit like watching 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' directed by Noel Coward.

Not entirely deserving of its place in canon

Visconti has lofty ambitions to follow one poor family through a sequence of troubled years - as he did, more realistically, gruellingly and affectingly in La Terra Trema - and structures the film interestingly, giving each of the brothers one section where their story is paramount, while still showing the progress of all five. But he falls between two stools, desiring realism but investing the dramatic high points of the family with a kind of operatic grandeur in both the acting and the camera's movement. So the film is indecisive as to whether it wants to bellow or whisper, and by the end is compromised by a hint of soap opera.

For stretches it is moving, instensely shot and well acted, but it isn't quite the revelation of something like Rome, Open City or Visconti's earlier amoral, seedy and thrilling Postman Always Rings Twice adaptation, Ossessione.

[Highly rated reviewer]

realism meets melodrama

This film is a rather uneasy mix of Italian neo-realism and over-wrought melodrama. It has the theme, common in much of Visconti's work of people struggling to cope with change. In this case a rural family of a mother and five sons move to Milan from the impoverished south. It's strengths lie in the superb camerawork, Visconti's usual attention to detail and the performances of Renato Salvatore as Simone and the actress playing the love interest. The problem lies in the melodrama surrounding Rocco (rather colourless acting fron Alain Delon) and Simone's struggle to possess the same women which sits uneasily with the film's realistic take on the problems of a family adjusting to life in Milan. I was fascinated throughout by this urban jungle of a city around 1960 and Copolla and Scorcese clearly owe a great debt to Visconti in their own development as film-makers. Definitly worth a look if you admire the work of these three directors.

Italian Mothers

Seriously, I really do not like them!

Bravissimo!

Beautiful film, beautiful pace. So much pain and tenderness in this film it leaves you longing for the South. Some great cinematography and slow scenes of Milan. With a touching scene at the top of the legendary Duomo Milan.

Pathos, pity and piety in a careful chaptered sections. A jewel of the era.

NICE MOVIE

VERY NICE MOVIE!

Great director