Rocco and His Brothers () is a 1960 drama film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatori, Katina Paxinou, Roger Hanin, Paolo Stoppa, and Claudia Cardinale in one of her early roles. Set in 1960 Milan, it tells the story of a migrant family from southern Italy and its disintegration in the society of the industrial north.
The film's title is a combination of the title of Thomas Mann's novel Joseph and His Brothers and Rocco Scotellaro, an Italian poet who described the feelings of the peasants of southern Italy. The screenplay, co-written by Visconti, is inspired by an episode from the novel Il ponte della Ghisolfa by Giovanni Testori.
A co-production between Italian studio Titanus and French production company Les Films Marceau, Rocco and His Brothers suffered from multiple controversies and setbacks in its pre-release period. It received a lukewarm response from Italian critics, but was more positively-received internationally, winning several accolades including the Special Jury Prize at the 21st Venice International Film Festival. Retrospective reviews were more positive, and the film is now highly regarded in the canon of Italian cinema.
In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."
Plot
After the death of his father, Rocco Parondi, one of the five sons of a poor rural Italian family, travels north from Lucania with his widowed mother Rosaria and three of his brothers—Simone, Ciro, and Luca—to the industrial city of Milan. They expect to stay with Vincenzo, the eldest brother, in the Milan suburb of Lambrate, but the family of Vincenzo's fiancee, Ginetta, object to the presence of the unschooled and unemployed southerners, and the Parondis end up in an unheated basement. After Ginetta becomes pregnant by Vincenzo and they marry, Vincenzo sees little of his mother and four brothers, who have to make their own way.
Simone, the second brother, struggles to adapt to urban life. He becomes attracted to a prostitute named Nadia, who urges him to pursue a career in boxing, which his mother also encourages, as a fast way to achieve fame and wealth. Though he falls in love with Nadia and demands more than a casual relationship, she rejects him after returning jewelry he stole from Rocco's boss for her.
Rocco, the third brother, is called up for military service. Near the end of his enlistment, he runs into Nadia, who has just finished a prison sentence for prostitution. His innocence and purity of heart inspires her to give up her way of life and enter an exclusive relationship with him. When Simone learns of this, he attacks Rocco and Nadia with a gang of friends and rapes Nadia to "teach Rocco a lesson". Not having realized how much their relationship would hurt his brother, Rocco breaks up with Nadia and encourages her to return to Simone, which she eventually does, though only to try to hasten his downfall.
Ciro, the second-youngest brother, attends night school and finds steady work at the Alfa Romeo factory. He tries his best to help make his family a success in their new hometown, and becomes engaged to a local woman from a good family.
Rocco often acts to preserve the well-being of his family members at some cost to his own happiness. He frequently covers for Simone, in particular, such as when he returns the jewelry that Simone stole from his employer, or when, after Simone's obsession with Nadia has ended his boxing career by causing him to spiral into alcoholism and a generally dissolute lifestyle, Rocco agrees to sign a ten year boxing contract in order to pay back Simone's debts, including to a homosexual man he robbed under compromising circumstances.
While Rocco is fighting in a championship bout, Simone visits Nadia, who has returned to working as a prostitute, near the Ponte della Ghisolfa (it) and kills her after she tells him how much she hates him. Rocco wins the fight, and, during the celebration with his family, he expresses a desire to return to their home in Lucania someday, and his mother indicates that she misses having all of her sons together. A bloody Simone interrupts the party and confesses to Nadia's murder. Rocco, despite his anguish, still wants to protect Simone, but Ciro refuses to go along and leaves to alert the police.