Rocco and His Brothers

Rocco And His Brothers is a film about the simplest of themes - family, jealousy, and love - and its power derives from how cleanly these themes are expressed.

The plot focuses mainly on the relationship between the innocent Rocco, who is willing to sacrifice anything to keep his 5 brothers together, and the brutish Simone, whose social and moral descent threatens to destroy the tightly-knit Parondi family. Also central to the plot is the widowed mother of the brothers, whose blind love for her children is both joyful and painful to watch, and Nadia, whose intimate ties with both Rocco and Simone make her the unwitting destroyer of the Parondi family.

'Rocco' is an epic family drama that is shot in a realistic style by the Italian maestro Visconti; there is no non-diegetic sound, plenty of deep-focus scenes, and much of the film's symbolism is restricted to the boxing ring. While I'm unfamiliar with the social context, there is a definite sense of longing for the family's past, as they weigh up their desires to return to Southern Italy with the grim reality of what their homeland has become.

Yet, despite the impossibilty of returning to more innocent times, the film concludes by looking to the future, leaving the viewer feeling that things may turn out OK for the idealistic yet oh-so-human Parondi family.

A southern peasant family come to Milan to make their living and gradually the stories of the five brothers come together to make grand opera. Despite being the lead character, Delon is a little too pretty and a little too wan to make a strong hero, but Salvatori as his volatile loose cannon older brother and Girardot as the whore he loves are electric. At three hours it's a long slog but plenty of fine directorial flourishes make it a fascinating journey.

Just a warning to those who want to rent this film, the DVD picture shown is from the Masters Of Cinema version (which is why I wanted to rent it, their DVD's are brilliant quality) but the DVD that Lovefilm actually sent out was a terrible terrible version (from Umbrella Entertainment or C'est La Vie I think) in which the image quality was not good, looked cropped, had terrible sound with large annoying burned in subtitles.

Still the film is brilliant and should be watched by all, I just wish Lovefilm would stock the DVD's that the picture implies they have.

Either I was too old for it, or it was too old for me - probably both in equal parts. I couldn't last with the sub-titles, my need-to-know the outcome fading. Nevertheless, this film has historic value, depicting the hardship for Italians after WW2. The state of unemployment, homelessness and desperation weighed against family loyalties and sticking together through impoverished circumstances. A film about time and place and circumstances in post-war Milan. All of that and a dominating mother......

Rocco and His Brothers continues to divide audiences. Is it a down to earth piece of social criticism or an overblown melodrama?

In fact the film does both. The industrial landscapes, the depiction of the sub-cultures of boxing, housing estates and the Alfa Romeo works remain long in the memory. The plight of the migrant is well told and pertinent in our times - so anyone claiming the politics to be outdated should try to watch the film from a migrant perspective.

At the same time we have Rocco and his brother Simone falling in love with a 'fallen' women. Both are obsessed with her and she brings out what is deep in them. For Rocco the saint (played by Alain Delon at his most androgenous) she brings out his fall from innocence, while for Simone (played by a demonic Renato Salvatore) she brings out the Beast.

The love triangle is full of archetypes and could be retold in any number of settings, while the social realism is rooted in its time and place. The final mix is a little awkward and a blind spot in this otherwise flawless epic.

Rather than dwell on this I would like to remember the little things that contribute to the film's greatness. I would like to celebrate Ciro the quiet brother who studies, marries, works hard and is the most 'adapted' of the brothers. I have a feeling that he speaks for most of the audience - he looks on, passes comment and provides an angle of 'normality' through which we can view the increasing degeneration of Simone and the disillusionment of Rocco. The final scene at the Alfa Romeo works is in many ways the most moving of the whole film - it is where the two halves of the film meet on equal ground.

Also Victor the oldest brother, is worth recalling. He has escped the poverty of Southern Italy to find a life in the north, but suddenly finds his entire family have followed him. The ambivalence he feels is subtle but true to many an older sibling who has chosen freedom over family commitments. Again he and his hopes of marrying and getting clear of the family are a story that is not really told by critics of this film.

Then there is that innocent moment when the brothers wake up to find that it is snowing -the first snow they had ever seen in their lives.

Finally there is Nino Rota's music. I can forgive Visconti for any amount of giong emotionally over the top if it gave him an excuse to commission that music.

At the end of the day the film will go on dividing people. Its up to each of us and not the critics to decide.