Rocco And His Brothers

AKA (Rocco e i suoi fratelli)

Written by Luchino Visconti and Suso Cecchi d'Amico (story)

Cast

Alain Delon
Renato Silvatori
Annie Girardot
Claudia Cardinale

"The movie's visceral intensity is matched only by the elegance and intelligence of the mise-en-scène, with its fine compositions, graceful camera moves, and evocative black-and-white cinematography. A work of overpowering power and stark beauty, Rocco and His Brothers stands as a vivid masterpiece from one of cinema's great artists. ALL MOVIE GUIDE

Synopsis

From Luchino Visconti - the master director of such classics as La Terra Trema, Bellissima, and The Leopard - comes this epic study of family, sex, and betrayal.

Alongside Fellini's La Dolce Vita and Antonioni's L'avventura, Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers ushered Italian cinema into a new era, one unafraid to confront head-on the hypocrisies of the ruling class, the squalor in urban living, and the collision between generations. A tight-knit family moves from Italy's rural south to metropolitan Milan. The shock of the new is violent and immediate. A mother meddles. A whore beguiles. Brother faces brother. Blood-ties come undone. We pity beatific Rocco (played by the immortal Alain Delon in a role specially written for him) and Nadia the harlot (Annie Girardot, capricious and scintillating) - the modern condition has shattered their lives.

Reviews

"The last gasp of the neo-realist spirit in Visconti's work, Rocco chronicles at length the misfortunes that befall an Italian peasant family when they move to The Big City. There's a grey conviction about much of the scene-setting and the location shooting, but the film gathers interest as it escalates into melodrama; the tragic climax is pure opera. Delon is unconvincing as the saintly Rocco, but Renato Salvatori makes the thuggish elder brother who falls in with a gay boxing promoter his best part ever." - TIME OUT

DVD Special features

Three hours of extras, including newsreels from 1960
Interviews with cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno, Annie Girardot and Claudia Cardinale;
Original Italian trailer
Two documentaries - TF1's Les Coulisses du tournage, and RAI's hour-long Luchino Visconti
40-page booklet featuring archival imagery, articles by Luchino Visconti and respected Italian film critic Guido Aristarco, as well as a rare interview with Visconti translated into English for the first time

Technical Information
Released date	February 25th, 2008
Opening Venue
Opening Venue tel.
Aspect Ratio	widescreen 1.78:1 Anamorphic
Main Soundtrack	Dolby Digital Mono
Language	Italian French
Subtitles	English
Region Code	2 (Europe, Japan, South Africa)
Disc Format	PAL
Duration	170 minutes

Italy/France/1960/B&W

Additional Information

2 x disc special edition containing a new anamorphic restoration of the film in its uncut Italian release version, With new and improved English subtitles
Both Italian and French soundtracks, the latter with Alain Delon and Annie Giradot's actual voices (they were voiced by others on the Italian track)

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