Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, Claudia Cardinale

This award-winning drama by director Luchino Visconti (Death in Venice) is an epic tale of how lust, greed and jealousy can rip apart even the closest of families. Famed French actor Alain Delon portr...( read more  read more... )ays Rocco, an introspective dreamer whose hope of fortune in Milan turns into a tragedy of sibling rivalry. Rocco and his brothers must battle their own conflicting passions as a bitter family feud ultimately leads to murder.

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17 critics

Unrated, 3 hrs.

Directed by: Luchino Visconti

Release Date: September 6, 1960

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DVD Release Date: May 24, 2005

Stats: 163 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (163)


  • October 22, 2009
    the melodramatic tale of a close-knit family's move from the rural south to the big northern city of milan, where everything gets complicated. once again visconti managed to suck me into a 3 hour epic. the film has two things i generally enjoy, boxing and a young alain delon. ...( read more)delon is beautifully restrained right up until the final scene as the too-good-to-be-true rocco, who sacrifices everything, including the woman he loves, in an attempt to hold his family together. this is quite a different role for him, best known for his supercool criminal characters of the 60's. even better is renato salvatori as his amoral brother simone, and annie girardot as the prostitute who comes between them, leading ultimately to their destruction. there are a couple of really brutal scenes and the climax is overwrought to the point of opera. it's been said visconti cast the film with his dick but he draws gritty performances from his gorgeous actors and they are certainly lovely to watch :)
  • August 19, 2009
    Rocco and his Brothers probably has some sort of socialist hidden meaning, I'm sure of it. But since I didn't see it, I'm writing from my point of view -I am warning you that there's much more to look for in here than what I might have found-. Rocco ei suoi fratelli centers on a ...( read more)family of five brothers and a widowed mother. They move up to Milan from middle Italy, leaving their homeland behind. At first they struggle to adapt to the conditions of the city, all the while maintaining themselves a close-knit traditional family. But as the second oldest son begins to develop a successful boxing career, the vices inherent to a citadin life begin to get in the way of their harmony, embodied by the callgirl (Annie Girardot) he takes as girlfriend. She brings dischord between brothers by falling later for Rocco, the second to youngest. He is all goodness, forgiveness, and fanatical about his family and his traditions, played very movingly by Alain Delon.

    As the story unfolds, Simone -the boxer brother- begins to grow fatter and weary, whereas Rocco begins to shine in the same sport... this stirs up jealousy and fear, respectively. When Simone loses the prostitute's love, Rocco wins it, and a dangerous rivalry is thus born. Simone, the decrepit figure -the citadin, corrupted by Milan- becomes Rocco's -the saintly, the countryman- worst enemy. He beats Rocco unconscious after finding him with the girl one evening, and then proceeds to humiliate her in his presence... yet his little brother insists that he should give her up, send her back to Simone, and forgive his brutality. The forces of extreme evil and extreme goodness seem to collide in a series of dramatic sequences, and it is self-evident that neither is ideal. Rocco's irrational good nature harms, instead of protects, him and his loved ones; the same can be said, of course, of Simone's over-the-top machismo.


    The real issue that Rocco and his Brothers touches on, to me, is finding the correct balance, the correct place to be, the correct sense of justice. Country or city? Whichever you choose, don't allow you environment to be stronger than your individuality, and so on. The film is thought-provoking but only on one hand, because it is also outstadingly raw, visceral, and earthy in the way that the best Neo-realist films are. So far, this is the highlight of Luchino Visconti's cinematography in my book.
  • September 13, 2008
    Review Forthcoming
  • August 20, 2009
    Com belos takes em preto e branco, é bonito, sem dúvida.

    Mostra italianos complicados de entender. Seja no falar, seja nas atitudes intempestivas. Se a latinidade é um adjetivo cheio de conotações, os personagens do filme são latinos ao extremo.

    As ligações familiares são post...( read more)as a prova com a morte de seu "chefe" e a migração. As tentações da cidade grande se antepõe aos laços. As trajetórias sofrem uma disjunção. A glória de um e a ruína de outro caminham lado-a-lado.

    Do irmão galã vem as qualidades mais nobres. Do outro, o vício. E assim, como polaridades opostas em um contínuo, permanecem ligados. No perdão, na dor e na esperança.

    Eu torci pelo herói e contra o laço. Sinal dos tempos.
  • June 12, 2009
    Why Rocco?i was asking this to myself when i started the movie.I mean there 5 brothers but movie's name is "Rocco and His Brothers".Then after i watched some of it.I understand why?Because Rocco is Alain Delon:) Just Kidding...Cause Rocco is the angel of the family.He protects hi...( read more)s family,he has got a job,he loves his mum.But i think mum's favourite son is Simone.But he is the most jealosing and irresponsible one.I cant talk about other brothers,Vincenso,Luca and Ciro.Cause movie is mostly talking about relationship between Rocco and Simone.
    Movie has 5 parts.each brother has its own part.But even in other brothers than Rocco and Simone,director is showing us Rocco and Simone.Even the has only Rocco and Simone.So i dont agree that this movie is about family.it is about brothers.
    Other than its selfishness failureI liked the movie.Espeically story wasnt different but good.So you can watch it.It got out my filter well.
  • January 25, 2009
    Rocco and His Brothers chronicles the life of the Parondi family from the perspective of the five brothers as they seek a better life in the industrial city of Milan: Vincenzo (Spiros Focas), Simone (Renato Salvatoi), Rocco (Alain Delon), Ciro (Max Cartier), and Luca (Rocco Vidol...( read more)azzi). Rosaria Parondi (Katina Paxinou), a proud, possessive widow, has decided to uproot her family from the rural village of Lucania in Southern Italy to spare her children from the fruitless toil of the family farm that consumed her husband's life. The eldest son, Vincenzo, has been sent ahead in order to arrange housing and employment for the older children, but he has been distracted from his familial obligations by his developing relationship with the beautiful Ginetta (Claudia Cardinale), whose family has hospitably provided him with food and lodging. The Parondi family unexpectedly arrives at Vincenzo and Ginetta's engagement party, and Rosaria quickly antagonizes Ginetta's family by presumptuously invoking Vincenzo' s duties to the Parondi family over Ginetta's happiness. Driven away from Ginetta's family home, a friend advises Vincenzo to follow in the footsteps of other Southern migrants: to rent a room for the family until the money runs out, and allow themselves to be evicted in order to qualify for council housing. Unable to find proper employment, the older brothers accept odd jobs to make ends meet. Simone is recruited by a renowned boxing trainer who believes that he demonstrates potential as a prize fighter, and finds early success in the boxing ring. However, his focus is tested when he meets wanton, emotionally unavailable woman named Nadia (Annie Girardot), and becomes obsessed with her. Rocco finds work in a laundromat, where his shyness and gentle demeanor has endeared him to the proprietress. However, his employment is jeopardized when Simone exploits Rocco's trustworthiness in order to steal from the proprietress and impress Nadia. Ciro resumes his studies in order to become an auto mechanic, and has isolated himself from the affairs of his brothers. Despite the Parondi family's adjustment to their new life in the city, Rocco continues to hold out hope of someday returning to their beloved village. However, as Simone's decadent and self-destructive lifestyle continues to erode the family's happiness and unity, Rocco's idealistic dream proves to be increasingly distant.

    Luchino Visconti provides a visually adept, insightful, and harshly realistic social commentary in Rocco and His Brothers. Using perspective shifts among members of the Parondi family, Visconti symbolizes the passing of the elusive, unattainable dream: Rosaria's wish for a reunited family; Vincenzo's struggle to distance himself from his manipulative mother; Simone's continued attempts to reconcile with the inaccessible Nadia; Rocco's dreams of returning to Lucania; Ciro's desire to assimilate with the modern, industrialized culture of Milan. Inevitably, the personal pursuit of dreams proves to be the unraveling of the family's unity, as individual needs conflict with familial responsibility. As the saintly Rocco misguidedly sacrifices his own happiness to save the undisciplined Simone, he finds himself sinking further into moral complicity and unredeemable guilt. The final scene shows young Luca visiting Ciro at the assembly plant. It is a realization of his own hopes apart from his mother's wishes - a resigned acceptance that the Parondi dream and bond of family are forever lost.
  • January 24, 2009
    its consider a masterpiece...
    i couldnt finish it..
  • January 10, 2009
    No thankyou - Not interested.
  • October 26, 2008
    Delon´s best artistic acievement and Visvonti before degenerating. Brilliant!
  • October 4, 2008
    I only heard of this movie when reading of director Luchino Visconti. How in this film he finally found the love of male beauty in the face of Alain Delon who plays Rocco in the film. Absolutely mavelous movie with so many different aspects of society change, cultural change, and...( read more) even family change. I will not go so far as to say that this is one of my favorite films, I can say that you will be hard pressed to find a better all round film. GREAT!

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