Rocco and His Brothers

Luchino Visconti quickly abandoned his neo-realist roots for more ambitious works. La Terra Trema (1948) shows Visconti experimenting with the epic format, albeit with docudrama styling. Senso (1954) provides an exorbitant Technicolor romance. Rocco and His Brothers (1960) is similarly conventional, a long but intimate study of an Italian family's trials and tribulations. This long but absorbing show matches Visconti's later epics in everything but scope.

Along with their mother (Katina Paxinou), the Laprondi brothers relocate from rural Italy to Milan, where they find difficulty fitting in. Vincenzo (Spiros Focas), already established in the city, is charged with housing his relatives, causing tensions with his fiancee (Claudia Cardinale). Rocco (Alain Delon) struggles with menial jobs then joins the Army. Ciro (Max Cartier) studies at university. Then there's Simone (Renato Salvatori), whose work as a boxer draws him into less reputable activities. A fling with prostitute Nadia (Annie Girardot) has dire consequences when she also falls for Rocco.

Many label Rocco as a neo-realist film, but this is misleading. Despite the working class setting it's really a classic, big-scale melodrama like The Best Years of Our Lives. Visconti spends much time drawing the family conflict, watching the small-town Parondis adjust to life in Milan. The city makes mincemeat of the brothers, drawing them into crime or else dehumanizing, unsatisfying work; even the educated Ciro ends up in a factory. Yet unlike La Terra Trema, this isn't a Marxist tract but a layered character drama.

Visconti's script provides an episodic structure, ostensibly developing each of the Parondi brothers. But the narrative's main thrust (and interest) involves the feud between Rocco and Simone. Visconti avoids the temptation to make Rocco a saint; he's nice and well-meaning, but essentially complacent. In contrast, Simone soon slides into desperation and depravity. There's a disturbingly sexual dynamic between Simone and his manager (Nino Castelnuovo), who openly ogles Simone in a shower. Inevitably the catalyst between Simone and Rocco is Nadia; she narrowly escapes audience contempt by developing a belated sense of self-worth.

Visconti provides direction unfussy yet stylish. He and photographer Giuseppe Rotunno show a nice eye for the grunginess of factories, freezing tenements and smoke-filled boxing arenas, but make the show suitably cinematic. Throughout he casts moody shadows and crafts stylish set pieces like Simone's final confrontation with Nadia. If Nadia stretching her arms Christlike rings false, the scene's dramatic impact compensates. Despite its nearly three-hour length, Rocco never grows tiresome like some of Visconti's later works.

Alain Delon scored his big break playing a nice character a world apart from his gangster roles. Renato Salvatori (Z) draws pity, showing Simone as unable to overcome his shortcomings. Annie Girardot (The Witches) makes a strong impression, alternately tragic and hysterical. Claudia Cardinale appears briefly as Vincenzo's feisty fiancee. Nino Castelnuovo and Paolo Stoppa (Once Upon a Time in the West) play crooked boxing managers. Katina Paxinou (For Whom the Bell Tolls) gets stuck playing a stereotyped Italian matriarch but makes it work.

Rocco and His Brothers stands out as an affecting drama. There's no greater tragedy in melodrama than a family self-destructing, whether Willy Loman's brood or the Corleones. Visconti shows a family struggling, suffering, but finally enduring.