Rocco and His Brothers ends Summer Series

As summer draws to a close, so does the summer series at the Cinematheque Ontario.
The last film of the series “Rocco and His Brothers” will be screened on 23rd Saturday.

This is exceptional filmmaking.  Unfortunately, tickets are all sold out.

ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS (Fr/It 1960) *****
Directed by Luchino Visconti

ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS is Visconti’s most down to earth and emotional work.  The film begins with a widow and her 4 sons arriving via train to Milano where the fifth already lives.  The meticulous shot train station opening, in glorious black and white by Giuseppe Rotunno is indicative of the great film that is to follow.  The camera here pulls back to reveal a background (porters carrying luggage; cleaners doing the windows) that creates the atmosphere of a scene while the viewer is still able to observe the movements of the characters (the mother and her children dragging their belongings) in the frame.  Visconti sets up the background for his film making it clear that it is rape of a naive Italian family that is under examination.  The uncaring big city is tough on these innocents – brother Simone evolves into a troubled boxer; Ciro reluctantly studies and so on.  Visconti soon concentrates on his protagonist Rocco (played by Alain Delon spewing Italian) with what he goes through in terms of sacrifice for the family.  Music is marvelously scored by Nino Rota with actresses Annie Giradot and Claudia Cardinale in their prime delivering small but memorable performances. 

Visconti proves that good effective family drama need not always be derived from dysfunctional family members but from social and environmental factors.

ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS is the last screening (23rd Saturday) of the Cinematheque Ontario summer series.  Tickets for the screening are at this point of writing this article, completely sold out.