Rocco and His Brothers (1960)

I’m not sure this ought not to have been called “Simone” and his brothers as it’s that sibling (Renato Salvatori) whose actions seem to resonate most across this family. They are led my matriarch “Rosaria” (Katina Paxinou) from their roots in Italy’s south to find a new home in Milan. That’s because elder son “Vincenzo” (Spyros Fokas) has moved there to be with his girlfriend “Ginetta” (Claudia Cardinale). Almost immediately, there’s a bit of a lively inter-family squabble that sees the her and her other sons “Rocco” (Alain Delon), “Simone”, the more sensible “Ciro” (Max Cartier) and their much younger brother “Luca” (Rocco Vidolazzi) all struggling to make ends meet with “Vincenzo” doing what he can to assist. Jobs are hard to come by and so they all resort to milking the system to put a roof over their heads whilst “Ciro” gets a job and the others do what they can to raise some cash. The narrative is loosely compartmentalised with each brother getting a little bit of the storyline but increasingly they centre around the handsome but unreliable “Simone” who proves useful in the boxing ring and who starts to make some money and to date “Nadia” (Annie Girardot). She’s a lady of the night with whom he falls heavily for, but when she discovers that he his stealing to pay his way with her, she asks “Rocco” to return the gifts and moves to another town. Now “Rocco” receives his draft papers and having sent his last lire to his mother, bumps into “Nadia” and soon a romance of their own is bubbling. This one, though, is not based on supply and demand and when his brother discovers this news, he and his friends set up a scenario with heinous ramifications. With “Simone” now on quite an obviously self-destructive path, “Rocco” - himself now a distinguished boxer after his time in the army disgusted by his brother, and “Nadia” loathing just about everyone - including herself, things become more and more toxic for the “Parondi” family. It’s that toxicity that Luchino Visconti captures evocatively as this characterful story develops along lines that are anything but predictable. Sure there is vengeance, but it’s exercised in such a subtle and accumulating manner as to provide us with a denouement that proves entirely unsatisfactory but somehow entirely appropriate. It’s Salvatori who steals this for me, but Girardot also shines as does Paxinou as the epitome of the Italian mother whose character is largely responsible for some of the sparing but punchy histrionic humour that peppers this family drama. The setting of a nation still recovering from the ravages of war, with money tight and opportunities unevenly spread throughout the place tells us potently of the trials and tribulations of relocation and of fitting-in as much as anything else, and some of the monochrome photography contrasts just as strikingly their slum dwellings with the more beautiful architecture of Milan suggesting that even there, there are rags and riches stories to be told and perhaps even to anticipate too. As in so many stories, boxing is used effectively as not just a conduit for hope, but also one for hatred and ambition and it’s with this persona that Delon is at his most effective as his increasingly conflicted and decent “Rocco” finds life nigh on impossible. The final segment falls to the impressionable young “Luca” who might feel just a little short-changed, but who might also prove to be the one most affected and with the most to look forward to. It’s vibrant, angry, clever and possibly my favourite Visconti film and if you can sit for a few hours and watch it on a big screen, then it’s well worth the effort.