Rocco and His Brothers Reviews

Me siento afortunado de haberme esta película en la madrugada por un canal de TV.
Se trata de una viuda del sur de Italia que se traslada a Milán con sus cinco hijos. Poco a poco se enredan en la gran ciudad, algunos se corrompen por sus caminos, otros se aprovechan. Rocco, interpretado por Alain Delon, es un inocente, mirando a sus hermanos y la vida en general con santa paciencia. Cuando su actitud benéfica se ve sometida a presión, no se rinde al interés propio, opta por sacrificar su propia felicidad, y la de la mujer que ama, por su familia. La familia es realmente lo que 'Rocco y sus hermanos' se trata. Nunca he visto filmes de Visconti, pero ver esta película me ha hecho querer ver más de su trabajo. Además, este movimiento tiene una de las imágenes más poderosas que he visto, cómo evoluciona la relación entre Simone y la prostituta Nadia. Recomiendo mucho esta pelicula. Es un drama notable, apasionado, bellamente fotografiado que permanecerá durante mucho tiempo vigente en la historia.

I guess in the end, Rocco's purity failed him. He's complicit in the murder of Nadia in a supposed act of selflessness for the redemption of Simone, the brute. But how about the feelings of Nadia, did he even consider? Probably maybe but most definitely not and that's the cross he has to bear.

In the end it is Ciro who appeared as the emotional anchor of the family. No wonder he has the film's final words to counter Rocco's "There's no hope now." declaration (even if to self-effacingly proclaim Rocco as a Saint).

The tragic ménage à trois-- bookended by Vincenzo's engagement party and Ciro's surprise rendezvous with his fianceé-- gnawed on their lives 'til all they could have left to hope for is a homecoming to much simpler times.

Will Luca ever set foot on Lucania again?
Will he ever?

To be honest, it has been while since I have seen this flick but like everything directed by Luchino Visconti, it was quite fascinating to behold. I have to admit that, when I was a teenager, I thought that Alain Delon was a rather lame actor (at the time, he certainly didn’t have a stellar reputation in France or else where so give me a break…) and I had no idea that, in the 60's and the 70's, the guy was actually one of the best actors around. It’s just too bad his career went downhill in the 80's and it has been probably a couple of decades since he has done anything really worthwile. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, many might argue that it was the best movie directed by Visconti and it is probably my favourite one so far but I still have to watch more than half of his work. Anyway, this was quite an amazing movie. Indeed, everything from the directing, the mood to the actors was just top notch. To conclude, I thought it was quite an impressive feature, it definitely deserves its reputation and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Italian movies.