Rocco and his brothers

The film begins with the arrival of the Parondi family (the widow of the Rosary with the sons Simone, Rocco, Ciro and Luca) on an evening train to Milan from the South. The eldest son of the Rosary Vincenzo lives in the family of his fiancée Ginetta in Lambrath (Milan quarter) and works on a construction site. Family rides in Lambrath by tram. At the same time, Vincenzo is shown in the house of Ginetta, they have an event. The doorbell rings: the Rosary appears on the doorstep with children embracing Vincenzo. They are invited to the table, but then there is trouble. The rosary rebukes Vincenzo that he does not mourn his father and is going to marry Ginette. This causes dissatisfaction with the mother of Ginetta and after the scandal that erupted, the Rosary, together with the children, including Vincenzo, leave the house. In Milan, they have no one and Vincenzo settles his relatives in the apartments of acquaintances, and he goes to spend the night on a construction site. The watchman recommends that he rent an apartment and pay for it only the first two months, and then stop, over time, for non-payment, they will be placed in apartments for debtors. Parondi do that.

Vincenzo goes to boxing training, and Simone and Rocco also begin to walk. But Rocco is quickly bored, and, as a result, only Vincenzo and Simone go. Simone, despite the fact that he is younger than Vincenzo, is physically stronger and begins to progress in boxing. He is lured to him by Chekki from the boxing club Aurora Milano, and there he becomes the strongest boxer. He begins to fight for money, constantly winning. In the same house where Parondi lives, Nadia lives, leading a dissolute lifestyle. Once she runs away from home after a quarrel with her father and asks for shelter from the Parondi family. They give her clothes, but she escapes through the window in the bathroom. In the future, she will meet with Simone, who loves women and drinking, although the Cheka trainer forbids him from doing this.

Rocco Parondi works in dry cleaning, he is a conscientious worker. Simone comes to him, where he is served. Changing clothes, he quietly steals someone else's shirt and asks his brother to lend him money. The owner of the dry cleaning service gives them to Simone, calculating the debt from Rocco's salary. Dry cleaners suspect Rokko's shirt is stolen, but Simone brings it to the dry cleaners and, seducing the mistress, removes an expensive brooch from her chest. He presents this brooch as a gift to Nadia, but she returns the jewelry through Rocco.

Meanwhile, Rocco is being drafted into the army. The family lives only on his salary, because Vincenzo married Ginette and lives separately, while Simone is in a mess, Ciro goes to evening school, and Luka delivers groceries. Rocco serves in another city and on the street he is recognized by Nadia, who has left prison. Between them later love will arise. Rocco is demobilized and returns home, but only his mother at home, his brothers went to Vincenzo, they have a son with Ginetta, and Rocco also goes to congratulate. Rocco is trying to teach Nadia to live anew, abandoning a depraved lifestyle. Nadia attends typists' courses and is no longer engaged in prostitution. She is in love with Rocco and seems to have recovered, but Simone destroys the idyll. He learns that Nadia is dating his brother Rocco. Simone and his friends find them. The brothers begin to sort things out and fight, but Simone is stronger than Rocco, he rapes Nadia while Rocco is friends. Nadia then runs away, and Rocco sobs. He does not hate his brother, he feels sorry for him, but Simone again starts a fight. And this time, Rocco is weaker. Barely alive, he comes to Vincenzo's home and faints there. Since then, he lives with his brother. Rocco asks Nadia to return to Simone, but Nadia loves Rocco, however he rejects her for his brother. They break off relations and Nadia returns to Simone and to the previous way of life. Drinking puts an end to Simone’s sports career, he loses fights, Checky refuses him, but he is interested in Rocco, who starts boxing again, and, unlike Simone, he is purposeful, disciplined and leads a healthy lifestyle. Soon, his work bears fruit, he makes good money in commercial battles and, playing for the Italian national team, wins the opponent from Sweden in the finals of the championship (world or Europe), and becomes famous. Simone rolls lower and lower, his friends are already mocking him. Nadia hates Simone for a crippled life and, in the end, leaves him. Simone also leaves the house. He constantly begs money from Rocco and he gives. This does not like the fourth brother - Ciro - he despises Simone, but his mother and Rocco continue to love him. Simone makes an appointment with Nadia, trying to return her, but realizing that it is useless, she kills her from despair.

The Parondi family gathered together at the festive table to celebrate Rocco’s victories. Even the neighbors have fun. In the midst of the triumph comes Simone. One mother is glad of his arrival; for her she always remains a son, albeit an unlucky one. But Simone is already indifferent to the family. Rocco’s victories annoy him. He asks Rocco for the next money and he does not mind giving it, but Ciro refuses it. Ciro liked Simone more than anyone in his time, and now he is most disappointed in him. Mother slaps Ciro - a country woman with strong family ties - not to understand Ciro - after all, he’s Simone’s brother - why does he treat him like that? Chiro, after receiving a slap in the face, runs away from home. Rocco and Luke are trying to catch up with him, but Ciro does not want to return. He reports to the police on Simon, he is arrested, but Ciro does not return home.

After some time, little Luke comes to Ciro and calls him home for dinner. He says that Vincenzo already has a second child, and Rocco goes to competitions. Ciro is an employee of the Alfa Romeo automobile plant, he is in good standing, he has become like a native Milanese and is not going to return to the village, unlike Rocco. Rocco never fell in love with this city. He is drawn to the earth - the homeland of the fathers. He dreams of someday returning to his native land. Ciro calls Simone a "bastard" and does not understand who he went to, because they have healthy roots in their family. Rocco explains this by the influence of the environment - such a big city as Milan, in which there are many opportunities for self-realization, but at the same time there are many temptations. Milan ruined Simone, left Rocco indifferent, only Ciro realized in Milan. The film ends at the moment when workers at the car factory where Chiro works return from a break and Luka runs home along the street.

• Alain Delon - Rocco Parondi
• Renato Salvatori - Simone Parondi
• Annie Girardeau - Nadia
• Katina Paxino - Rosary Parondi
• Spyros Fokas - Vincenzo Parondi
• Max Cartier - Ciro Parondi
• Claudia Cardinale - Ginetta, wife of Vincenzo
• Alessandra Panaro - Franca, Ciro's Bride
• Claudia Mori - Dry Cleaning Worker
• Paolo Stopp - Cherry, Boxing Trainer
• Roger Anin - Morini
• Rocco Vidolazzi - Luca Parondi
• Suzy Deler - Louise

Although the plot of the film is not based on any particular literary source, the researchers of Visconti noted the connection with such works as the novel “The Idiot” by Fyodor Dostoevsky (the “holy” Rocco is an analogue of Prince Myshkin and his brother Simone is Rogozhin ), Milan’s stories by Giovanni Testori (especially Il ponte della Ghisolfa ) and Thomas Mann’s novel, Joseph and His Brothers . Most Italian critics declared the tape the best example of critical realism (in the spirit of the theory of Gyorgy Lukacs ). Visconti himself associated the picture with the ideas of Verga and Gramsci and, in fact, considered it a continuation of his early film “The Earth is Trembling ”: here the inhabitants of the rural South were transferred to the unusual atmosphere of the industrial North, which gave the director the opportunity to study complex social problems and relationships. Each member of the Parondi family reacts differently to the situation in which they find themselves, which creates a complex and controversial structure (a similar attempt to paint such a broad picture of social life was made in the film “Twentieth Century” by Bernardo Bertolucci , a big Visconti fan). The final speech of Ciro, one of the brothers, to some extent reveals the conclusions that the director made from this study. ^[one]

“Rocco and His Brothers” was the first Visconti film to have significant commercial success in Italy , although it faced certain problems with censorship. Before going to the wide Italian rental, a number of scenes were removed from the tape (in general, it was cut for 45 minutes), and later they refused to show it in Milan . ^[one]

• 1960 - special prize and the FIPRESCI prize at the Venice Film Festival (both - Lukino Visconti).
• 1961 - David di Donatello Award for Best Production (Goffredo Lombardo).
• 1961 - three awards "Silver Ribbon" of the Italian national syndicate of film journalists: best director (Lukino Visconti), best script (Suzo Cecci d'Amico, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Enrique Medioli, Lukino Visconti), best cinematography (Giuseppe Rotunno).
• 1962 - two BAFTA nominations : Best Film and Best Foreign Actress (Annie Girardeau).
• 1962 - Award "Bodybuilder" for the best European film (Lukino Visconti).

• Rocco and His Brothers on the Internet Movie Database  
• Rocco and his brothers on the allmovie website