''Rocco and His Brothers'' ( it, Rocco e i suoi fratelli) is a 1960

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Luchino Visconti Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the fat ...

and starring

Alain Delon Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon (; born 8 November 1935) is a French actor and filmmaker. He was one of Europe's most prominent actors and screen sex symbols in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, he won the César Award for Best Actor for h ...

Annie Girardot Annie Suzanne Girardot (25 October 193128 February 2011) was a French actress. She often played strong-willed, independent, hard-working, and often lonely women, imbuing her characters with an earthiness and reality that endeared her to women und ...

Renato Salvatori Renato Salvatori (20 March 1933 – 27 March 1988) was an Italian actor. Born in Seravezza, Province of Lucca, Salvatori began his career in his teens playing juvenile, romantic roles. After working with directors such as Luchino Visconti, Rob ...

Katina Paxinou Katina Paxinou ( gr, Κατίνα Παξινού; 17 December 1900– 22 February 1973) was a Greek film and stage actress. She started her stage career in Greece in 1928 and was one of the founding members of the National Theatre of Greece in ...

Roger Hanin Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...

Paolo Stoppa Paolo Stoppa Knight Grand Cross (6 June 1906 – 1 May 1988) was an Italian actor. Biography Born in Rome, he began as a stage actor in 1927 in the theater in Rome and began acting in films in 1932. As a stage actor, his most celebrated ...

, and

Claudia Cardinale Claude Joséphine Rose "Claudia" Cardinale (; born 15 April 1938) is an Italian actress. She has starred in some of the most iconic European films of the 1960s and 1970s, acting in Italian, French, and English. Born and raised in La Goulette, a ...

in one of her early roles. Set in 1960

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, it tells the story of a migrant family from

southern Italy Southern Italy ( it, Sud Italia or ) also known as ''Meridione'' or ''Mezzogiorno'' (), is a macroregion of the Italian Republic consisting of its southern half. The term ''Mezzogiorno'' today refers to regions that are associated with the peop ...

and its disintegration in the society of the industrial north. The film's title is a combination of the title of

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...

's novel ''

Joseph and His Brothers ''Joseph and His Brothers'' (''Joseph und seine Brüder'') is a four-part novel by Thomas Mann, written over the course of 16 years. Mann retells the familiar stories of Genesis, from Jacob to Joseph (chapters 27–50), setting it in the hi ...

'' and

Rocco Scotellaro Rocco Scotellaro (19 April 1923 – 15 December 1953) was an Italian poet, writer and politician. Life and career Born in Tricarico, in the Province of Matera, the son of a shoemaker and a homemade seamstress, Scotellaro studied law at the ...

, an Italian poet who described the feelings of the peasants of southern Italy. The screenplay, co-written by Visconti, is inspired by an episode from the novel ''Il ponte della Ghisolfa'' by

Giovanni Testori Giovanni Testori (Novate Milanese, 12 May 1923 – Milan, 16 March 1993) was an Italian writer, journalist, poet, art and literary critic, dramatist, screenplay writer, theatrical director and painter. Biography Childhood and youth “It is ...

. A co-production between Italian studio

Titanus Titanus is an Italian film production company, founded in 1904 by Gustavo Lombardo (1885–1951). The company's headquarters are located at 28 Via Sommacampagna, Rome and its studios on the Via Tiburtina, 13 km from the centre of Rome. Lom ...

and French production company Les Films Marceau, ''Rocco and His Brothers'' suffered from multiple controversies and setbacks in its pre-release period. It received a lukewarm response from Italian critics, but was more positively-received internationally, winning several accolades including the Special Jury Prize at the 21st Venice International Film Festival. Retrospective reviews were more positive, and the film is now highly-regarded in the canon of Italian cinema.

Plot

After the death of his father, Rocco Parondi, one of the five sons of a poor rural Italian family, travels north from

Lucania Lucania was a historical region of Southern Italy. It was the land of the Lucani, an Oscan people. It extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. It bordered with Samnium and Campania in the north, Apulia in the east, and Brutti ...

to join his older brother Vincenzo in Milan, led by the matriarch Rosaria. She is the "hand to which the five fingers belong," and she has a powerful influence on her sons. Presented in five distinct sections, the film weaves the story of the five brothers Vincenzo, Simone, Rocco, Ciro and Luca Parondi as each of them adapts to his new life in the city. Vincenzo, the eldest brother, is already living in Milan when his mother and brothers come to join him expecting to move in with him. An initial scene ensues between the Parondi family and Vincenzo's fiancée Ginetta's family, and the whole Parondi family moves in together. Despite early friction between Rosaria and Ginetta, he soon gets married and starts a family of his own. After settling down, Vincenzo doesn't interact much with the Parondi brothers. Simone, the second brother, struggles to adapt to urban life. He becomes attracted to a prostitute named Nadia, who urges him to pursue a career in boxing, which his mother also encourages, as a fast way to reach fame and wealth. Nadia, after initially pursuing Vincenzo only to find him happy in his new family life, turns her interest to Simone. Simone falls in love with Nadia and demands far more than a casual relationship, but she rejects him. Rocco, the third brother, leaves to complete military service in Turin and meets Nadia, who has just been released from prison for prostitution. His innocence and purity of heart ignites her to give up her way of life and enter an exclusive relationship with him. When Simone learns of this, he attacks Nadia and Rocco with a gang of friends and rapes Nadia to "teach Rocco a lesson". Rocco subsequently sacrifices his relationship with Nadia, telling her that he did not realize how much their relationship hurt his brother. Rocco insists that Nadia return to Simone, and she reluctantly complies. Ciro, the second-youngest brother, perhaps by observing the trials of Simone and Rocco, decides to learn from their mistakes and mimic his brother Vincenzo. Unlike Vincenzo, Ciro still lives with his mother and participates in family matters. To that end, Ciro finds steady work in Milan at an automobile factory and becomes engaged to a local woman from a good family. Rocco often acts to preserve the well-being of family members at some cost to his own happiness. He continues a boxing career without enjoying it to provide for his family and he covers for Simone in a myriad of ways, such as returning an expensive brooch that Simone stole from Rocco's boss. After Simone loses the ability to compete as a boxer, because of his obsession with Nadia, his alcoholism, and dissolute lifestyle, Rocco agrees to sign a long term boxing contract in order to pay back money that Simone squandered and cannot repay. While Rocco fights and wins a championship bout, Simone kills Nadia in a jealous rage when she returns to prostitution and refuses to return to him. As the family celebrates Rocco's victory, he shares an anecdote about masons, who, at the start of erecting a building, sacrifice a brick by throwing it into the shadow of the first passerby to ensure the structure will be sound and endure. Rocco's own habit of sacrificing his money and well-being can be likewise analogized, as attempts to preserve his family after their upheaval from country life. Simone arrives at the apartment and confesses to Nadia's murder. Despite his anguish, Rocco tries to protect Simone, but Ciro refuses to go along and leaves to turn Simone in to the police. The youngest brother, Luca, does little but watch quietly in the background most of the time. By the end of the film he wants to return with Rocco to the south, despite spending the least time in southern Italy before the family moved to Milan. In one of the last scenes Ciro speaks to Luca outside his factory and tells him that Rocco won't return there, though he might, but will not find the south the same under the pressure of inevitable progress, and, though many people fear a changing world, he does not and believes that Luca will benefit from the changes.

Cast

as Rocco Parondi *

as Nadia *

as Simone Parondi *

as Rosaria Parondi *

as Duilio Morini *

Spiros Focás Spiros Focás ( el, Σπύρος Φωκάς; born 17 August 1937) is a Greek actor. Selected filmography * (1959) - Giannos * (1959) - Tasos Lygos * (1959) - Alekos * '' Death of a Friend'' (1959) - Bruno * (1960) - Lucio Massimo * '' Rocco ...

as Vincenzo Parondi *

as Ginetta, Vincenzo's fiancée *

as Tonino Cerri * as Ciro Parondi * Rocco Vidolazzi as Luca Parondi *

Alessandra Panaro Alessandra Panaro (14 December 1939 – 1 May 2019) was an Italian film actress of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Panaro is best known for her films in the early 1960s, notably Luchino Visconti's crime drama '' Rocco e i suoi fratelli'' in 196 ...

as Franca, Ciro's fiancée *

Suzy Delair Suzy Delair (born Suzette Pierrette Delaire; December 31, 1917 – March 15, 2020) was a French actress, dancer, singer, comedian and star of vaudeville. Early years Growing up in Montmartre, Delair was the daughter of a father who upholstered ...

as Luisa *

Claudia Mori Claudia Mori (born Claudia Moroni, Rome, 12 February 1944), is an Italian producer, former actress and former singer, and wife of the singer Adriano Celentano. Biography 1960s She began her career in show business as an actress playing in musi ...

as Raffaella *

Adriana Asti Adriana Asti (born 30 April 1931) is an Italian stage, film, and voice actress. Biography On stage, she starred in ''Saint Joan'' by George Bernard Shaw, ''Happy Days'' by Samuel Beckett, ''The Mistress of the Inn'' by Carlo Goldoni, and ''Three ...

as Giannina *

Nino Castelnuovo Francesco "Nino" Castelnuovo (28 October 1936 – 6 September 2021) was an Italian actor of film, stage and television, best known for his starring role as Guy Foucher in the French musical film ''The Umbrellas of Cherbourg'' (1964). Castelnu ...

as Nino Rossi *

Corrado Pani Corrado Pani (4 March 1936 – 2 March 2005) was an Italian actor and voice actor. Life and career Born in Rome, Pani began his career playing the role of Jesus as a child in a Radio Vaticana radio drama. He made his film debut in 1953, with ...

as Ivo *

Renato Terra Renato Terra (26 July 1922 in Naples – 28 November 2010 in Rome) had a career working in film as an actor, and has appeared in over 80 movies. In 1977 he retired to become a poet. Young, he attended the Experimental Center of Cinematography in ...

as Alfredo, Ginetta's brother * as Renzo *

Enzo Fiermonte Enzo Fiermonte (17 July 1908 – 22 March 1993), sometimes credited as William Bird, was an Italian actor and boxer. Early life Vincenzo "Enzo" Fiermonte was born on 17 July 1908 in Casamassima, a rural village near Bari, in southern Italy to D ...

as a boxer

Production

''Rocco and His Brothers'' was filmed in

during the Spring of 1960. Locations included Piazza del Duomo, the

Milan Cathedral Milan Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Milano ; lmo, Domm de Milan ), or Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Nativity of Saint Mary ( it, Basilica cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria Nascente, links=no), is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombard ...

, and the

Milano Centrale railway station Milano Centrale ( it, Stazione Milano Centrale) is the main railway station of the city of Milan, Italy, and is the largest railway station in Europe by volume. The station is a terminus and located at the northern end of central Milan. It was o ...

. Other scenes were shot in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Bellagio Bellagio may refer to: * Bellagio, Lombardy, an Italian town * Bellagio (resort), a luxury resort and casino in Las Vegas * Bellagio (Hong Kong), a private housing building * Bellagio declaration, an intellectual copyright resolution * 79271 Bellag ...

, and

Civitavecchia Civitavecchia (; meaning "ancient town") is a city and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Rome in the central Italian region of Lazio. A sea port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it is located west-north-west of Rome. The harbour is formed by two pier ...

(Simone) and

(Nadia) romantically eloped during filming, and married two years later. The production was beset by multiple setbacks.

was denied multiple filming permits to locations that had been previously approved, and production was shut down on the orders after provincial premier Adrio Casati learned that the climactic murder scene would be filmed in a large recreational area in

Idroscalo The Idroscalo is an artificial lake in Milan, Italy that was originally constructed as a seaplane airport. It opened on 28 October 1930, in the heyday of seaplanes. When the use of seaplanes for passenger transport declined it became a recreati ...

. Casati claimed it was due to an "inopportune resemblance to reality" of the scene to be shot to the recent murder of a young prostitute in the area. Visconti was forced to move shooting to

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, with the scene instead filmed at

Lago di Fondi Lake Fondi ( it, Lago di Fondi, la, Lacus Fundanus, Lacus Amyclanus) is a brackish lake about to the southeast of Rome in the Province of Latina, Lazio, Italy, in the region called Sud or "South" Pontino, the western end of which is the Piana di ...

. During post-production, Visconti re-dubbed and re-edited the film to change the characters' names from "Pafundi" to "Parondi." A local judge with the same name had threatened to sue the producers, under the mistaken belief that the film was about him.

Reception

Box office

The film was the 27th most popular film of the year in France.French box office for 1961
at Box Office Story It sold 10,220,365 tickets in Italy.

Critical response

For ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

, gave the film a positive review and appreciated the direction of the film and acting.

"A fine Italian film to stand alongside the American classic, ''
The Grapes of Wrath ''The Grapes of Wrath'' is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize ...
'', opened last night ...It is Luchino Visconti's ''Rocco and His Brothers'' (''Rocco e i suoi fratelli''), and it comes here garlanded with laurels that are quite as appropriate in this context as they are richly deserved...Signor Visconti has clearly conceived his film and that is what his brilliant handling of events and characters makes one feel. There's a blending of strong emotionalism and realism to such an extent that the margins of each become fuzzy and indistinguishable...Alain Delon as the sweet and loyal Rocco...is touchingly pliant and expressive, but it is Renato Salvatori...who fills the screen with the anguish of a tortured and stricken character. His raw and restless performance is overpowering and unforgettable... nd theFrench actress Annie Girardot is likewise striking as the piteous prostitute..."

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' lauded the drama, and wrote "With all its faults, this is one of the top achievements of the year in Italy...Scripting shows numerous hands at work, yet all is pulled together by Visconti's dynamic and generally tasteful direction. Occasionally, as in the near-final revelation to the family of Simone's crime, the action gets out of hand and comes close to melodrama. Yet the impact of the main story line, aided by the sensitive, expertly guided playing of Alain Delon as Rocco, Annie Girardot as the prostitute, and Renato Salvatori as Simone, is great. Katina Paxinou at times is perfect, at others she is allowed to act too theatrically and off-key."

Stanley Kauffmann Stanley Kauffmann (April 24, 1916 – October 9, 2013) was an American writer, editor, and critic of film and theater. Career Kauffmann started with ''The New Republic'' in 1958 and contributed film criticism to that magazine for the next fifty ...

of ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

'' wrote to him ''Rocco and His Brothers'' was "distended, sententious, ostentatiously frank, fundamentally trite, and thematically unsuccessful".

Retrospective reviews

When the film was released in DVD format, critic Glenn Erickson wrote "A major pleasure of ''Rocco and His Brothers'' is simply seeing its portrait of life in working-class Milan in 1960. Beautifully directed in the housing projects and streets of the city, this is a prime example of a film which will accrue historical interest simply because it shows so much of how people lived and what places looked like (now) 40 years ago."

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...

lists the film on his "35 foreign films to see before you die."

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five A ...

cited ''Rocco and His Brothers'' as an inspiration for ''

The Godfather ''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, ...

'' (1972). In 2008,

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

added ''Rocco'' to his Great Movies list.

Censorship

On October 27, twenty days after the premiere, the film's release was blocked and the negative seized after

Domenico Tardini Domenico Tardini (29 February 1888 – 30 July 1961) was a longtime aide to Pope Pius XII in the Secretariat of State. Pope John XXIII named him Cardinal Secretary of State and, in this position the most prominent member of the Roman Curia in ...

, the

Cardinal Secretary of State The Secretary of State of His Holiness (Latin: Secretarius Status Sanctitatis Suae, it, Segretario di Stato di Sua Santità), commonly known as the Cardinal Secretary of State, presides over the Holy See's Secretariat of State, which is the ...

, requested that Italian officials take action against "certain destructive films". They demanded that four scenes, including the murder of Nadia, be cut or the film would be confiscated and the producer prosecuted. After negotiations,

Goffredo Lombardo Goffredo Lombardo (15 May 1920 – 2 February 2005) was an Italian film producer. He was the son of the producer Gustavo Lombardo and took over control of the company Titanus after his father's death in 1951. Selected filmography * ''Chain ...

agreed to darken the critical scenes within the film with filters; two of these darkened scenes were later omitted entirely.Henry Bacon, ''Visconti: Explorations of Beauty and Decay'', Cambridge University Press, 1998, p. 102-103 Visconti was never informed of these changes. The deleted scenes were later restored for home video releases.

Awards and nominations

In Popular Culture

The German artist collective ''Rocco und seine Brüder'' take their name from the fil

References

External links

* * * *
''Rocco and His Brothers''
at DVD Beaver (includes images). *
''Palestra Visconti''
– one of the movie's location in Milan {{DEFAULTSORT:Rocco And His Brothers 1960 films 1960 drama films 1960s sports drama films 1960s Italian-language films Italian sports drama films Italian black-and-white films Italian boxing films French sports drama films French black-and-white films French boxing films Films scored by Nino Rota Films directed by Luchino Visconti Films set in Milan Social realism in film Titanus films Venice Grand Jury Prize winners Films with screenplays by Suso Cecchi d'Amico Films shot in Milan Films shot in Rome Films shot in Lazio Italian epic films French epic films 1960s Italian films 1960s French films