Rocco and His Brothers

I hate to be so lukewarm on a movie by a director with whom my past experiences have been so rewarding - and I expected to love this - but I just couldn't get into it. The first two hours or so are slow and generally boring, and though the last hour is effective and emotional, by then it's too late. And while I felt that Visconti's direction was extremely graceful and artful in his other movies, something feels off here...visually, I found it bland and boring, in a way I can't describe.

Constructed competently, even artfully at times, with an excellent score and a good performance by Delon. Otherwise, I want my three hours back. The first half is a lot of treading water, really dull stuff. It gets a little more interesting after that, but at no point does it ever gel into a truly compelling story. Everyone is constantly in hysterics: shouting, getting upset, bawling their hearts out, spitting in each other's faces, slapping each other around.

somehow i love to see these guys crying and shouting all the time and the mama is crying and shouting, too - its so wonderful pathetic; anyway, why is everybody afraid of being pathetic? makes me sad. io! io! io!

Intense family drama that was surely an influence on Scorsese, especially on Raging Bull where the confluence of boxing and Catholic self masochism practically define LaMotta's trajectory. Rocco isn't a bastard like LaMotta, he is a saintly man who absorbs his family's sins, much to his own detriment, and his quest to redeem his wayward brother, Simone, leads to tragic consequences. Its operatic tone results in some overacting, but it's a passionately performed film that's beautifully made.

Very good drama about the dislocation and disorientation brought by urbanisation (but ultimately about its promise, too). Intense and melodramatic, with some slight narrative clunkiness, but still succeeds in being an affecting tale of jealousy, shame and sacrifice. Girardot is undoubtedly the standout performer and a young Cardinale looks beautiful in her small role, but Visconti's camera is definitely more interested in Delon and Salvatori. Also just a great document of Milan sixty years ago.

Grittier, down and dirty Visconti entry that will nevertheless test your endurance for intense, operatic level emotions; the high intensity treatment of what is ultimately fairly slight and insignificant melodrama becomes too exhausting and numbing after about an hour, despite the committed performances and some particularly beautiful cinematography, which adds a bracing glamour and beauty to the sometimes squalid locales. If I can ever again summon up the energy, it may benefit from a rewatch.

It didn't need to be as long as it is to get its point across and the most important scenes are also the worst executed. Nevertheless, it is an interesting tale and, aside from some overemoting, well acted and well directed. Visconti captures some really wonderful images but he also captures many drab ones, an inconsistency that exists in the storytelling as well. The film's emotional core and meditation on duty and loyalty is what makes it rewarding despite its flaws.

Alain Delon = the best again.

Long, boring movie about a bunch of no-accounts with very large mouths

As a work of social realism, I love it. This mid-century city portrait of lower class laborers seems like an important and affectionate historical document, and like The Leopard, a lament of changing epoch. Industrialization and modernity threaten to destroy this fraternity, wherein the film occasionally loses me in the second half with melodramatic hysterics, but generally this is a sensitive and tasteful family saga.

Long family drama that feels both epic and tiny in scope. I'm generally a fan of country-goes-to-the-city, and here we have southern Italians moving to the north and trying to fit in. The neo-realism can be amazing but at other times makes the movie drag. I had a hard time believing the sons were so one-dimensional (one saintly, another pure evil), and I think that led to me trying to find more faults in an otherwise well-acted saga.

Very good..

Such a frustrating film, fantastic piece of neorealistic noir, however I wish the ending was slightly different, you may well see why!

Well shot and performed. I may be alone in thinking the first hour of this is the best - the socioeconomic details specific and more affecting than any of the drama. I found the depiction of sexual brutality - both its moral and emotional consequences - painfully dated and I can’t imagine they’d at any time have been realistic. In order to buy it, you have to accept the characters as archetypes and all events idealistic without getting too offended. It almost succeeded.

"Rocco e i suoi fratelli" is well-shot, generally well-acted (Delon, Salvatori and Girardot are all very good), realistic and contains several insightful or poignant scenes. That said, it just didn't connect with me. The plot doesn't seem nearly adequate to fill up three hours, resulting in many dull stretches, while the drama often feels overwrought. I appreciated the true-to-life depiction of working class Milano circa 1960 but Visconti's storytelling left much to be desired.

Dünya tarihinde en çok abartılmış film.

Neo-realism meets the glamour of Hollywood, with Alain Delon as a poor boy from the country. This is a grand film, consisting of breathtaking scope and big emotions, with multiple scenes where the actors scream their heads off in agony, but it never comes off as cheesy or ridiculous. The performances really are great and there are a couple of scenes in here that will shake you to your core. A classic.

# 185

Greek tragedy Italian style. Despite its three hour running time it doesn't feel a minute too long because of Visconti's tight, economical storytelling with only the most essential parts of the story included. Hence the almost constantly intense, even hysterical opera-like tone.

185

aka rocco and his brother and their mutual love interest...the climactic storyline is closer to opera in intensity than any other film i can recall. annie girardot steals this one with her tremendous portrayal of nadia. memorable scenes: nadia and rocco holding hands at the cafe, nadia and rocco standing in the trolley, simone and nadia's last meeting. final scene with luca. highly recommended.

Obviously the "Ill do anything to keep the family together" didnt work as well as Rocco thought. A tragic look at the appeasement of the male ego - real melodrama

There's a certain tinge of Italian cinema that just isn't for me. Boooring

Massive portmanteau of realistic stories, a bit hard to take despite its undoubted brilliance.

You're too nice Rooco!

84.00

fantastic neorealist film that follows the destruction of a family as they move into the city. undoubtedly luchino visconti's best film.

I wasn't taken with this ultimately rather banal melodrama. If I had warmed to any of the characters, I suppose that I might have been more engaged by the highly pitched shenanigans.

Rocco e Seus Irmãos estreava há 60 anos no Festival de Veneza. Confesso que não tinha nenhuma lembrança desse filme, é fácil ver o porquê de tê-lo deletado de minha consciência: ele culpa demais a mulher pela masculinidade tóxica. Apesar de Visconti ser gay, ele ainda é um homem num dos países mais machistas do mundo e isso se torna bem claro aqui. Coleção Folha Cine Europeu.

Brilliant example of Italian neorealism. To me, it plays like a classical Greek play or something, with really overdone (in my opinion) pathos and overall drama. Still great.

Toplumcu gerçekçiliğe dair eserler genelde sanatsal nitelikten uzaklaşmaya meyyaldir. Fakat eserin başındaki kişi Visconti gibi bir estetik üstadı olunca hem öz, hem biçim konusunda muazzam bir yapıt ortaya çıkıyor.

Well acted, but ultimately boring in the same way that other Visconti films are also boring.

Karamazovesque

A modern classic from top director Visconti. Very long, sometimes ponderous, but engrossing, complex drama.

It's a beautiful film with Giuseppe Rotunno's deep focus photgraphy and a beautiful Nino Rota score that inspired Francis Ford Coppola to hire him for "The Godfather". The cast is all wonderful (Delon reveals a side you'll rarely ever see again), but it's Girardot who really steals the film.

Spectacular! Nearly three hours' worth of intensive and unfalteringly impeccable cinema in terms of acting, writing and perhaps especially directing. Thank heavens for the little distance created by Visconti's generous use of medium and long shots, otherwise the audience might stand the risk of combusting due to all the fiery Italian passion displayed here.

Perhaps Visconti intended this to be a film about how 'industrialization' is causing families to become fractured, distant and otherwise selfish, and uncaring for each other. It is also more. Through the aspects of five brothers, and their elderly mother, he touches on strong family themes. But also on sacrifice, despair, and ultimately hope and if there is any. Is it always worth personal sacrifice for family? The drama is tense and moving, all in all, it's a very well done tragedy.

161

Visconti's rich tragedy, mainly exploring the relationship between five brothers, is quite a powerful, low-voiced melodrama, always insisting to depict the emotional pain of the characters; the film seems to be contantly interested in the wreaking desperation of the main characters, leading up to a bleak, dim roundoff. A fine, grave drama.

Melodrama at its best. It's overlong at over 3 hours and doesn't really justify that run time, but it's an epic family tale of jealousy, revenge, sacrifice, and ultimate destruction. It feels like a Shakespearian tragedy at times. Renato Salvatori as Simone gives a great portrayal of the tragic character. He's not really a "villain" in the traditional sense, but is an impressively loathsome and pathetic creation. The overdramatic mother often provides some needed comic relief.

I can't stand his brothers gosh

This portrait of social change among a family of five brothers has a tragic tone. The family's migration to the city from their southern country home is fraught with peril, offering at best only a meager existence as a "wage slave." The city will break the spirit or worse, lead one into immoral behavior and a lack of regard for the humanity of others. Visconti captures all of this quietly and slowly, with camerawork that is, at times, exquisite.

Lovely cinematography and score elevates the film's melodramatic story. I actually kind of like the melodrama here, to be honest, because it feels like a grand old tragedy - broad character types, profound emotions leading to intense emotional outbursts and outrageous acts of violence - it feels very authentically Italian in spirit. I do, however, wish Visconti reigned in a few of the characters - Rocco is just too virtuous and obsequious, Simone is too much of a cad.

#160