Whoever deals with Visconti is allowed to work through all these contradictions: He was an aristocrat and a Marxist, and a gay artist. He began his career in Neorealism, but I think that Visconti's imagination was too big to remain true to this style. If we were typical Visconti geeks from our video store, we would argue about how neo-realistic Rocco And His Brothers is? Anyway, Rocco And His Brothers is also a sophisticated style exercise! Rocco (Alain Delon) himself is deeply idealistic. This sets in motion a chain of events that one knows only from Italian opera. Or from American Mafia gangster movies. But iin Rocco And His Brothers all this seems very realistic. The epic is about recent Italian history. It could also play today and reflect recent European history, but that's another subject. On a cold winter night Rosaria (Katina Paxinou) arrives at the train station in Milan with her five sons, including Simone (Renato Salvatori) and Rocco. Everyone notices immediately; this family comes from the poor south of Italy. Reason for the journey: The oldest son Vincenzo (Spiros Focas) has already settled in Milan. He will marry the beautiful Ginetta (Claudia Cardinale). But the time has been chosen unfavourably. Rosaria assumes that they will be welcome in Vincenco's new house. Ginetta's mother and Rosario, however, feel nothing but dislike for each other. The result is a catastrophe and Vincenco's engagement is even broken off. Enraged, Rosario leaves the inhospitable house and orders her sons to do the same. Not here - with Vincenco's new family - they will live, but in a shabby cellar apartment. Then it snows and Rosario throws her sons out of their beds. Finally earn money! Shoveling snow. They are advised to rent some apartment just to be fired from it. Then they'd accept them in one of the cheap council flats. They are not available to the homeless. A social scam that sounds pretty neo-realistic, right? But the sons find their way. Then Nadia, played by Annie Girardot, enters their lives. She's young and sexy and very honest. Nadia appeals to both Simone, the boxer, and Rocco. But Rocco hides his feelings. Nadia loves Rocco and despises the brutal Simone. She, the spoiled one (so Rosario) would like to be good like Rocco, not bad like Simone. Simone, unhappy with Nadia, drinks and smokes and finally loses Nadia as well as his career as a boxer. And Nadia begins a secret relationship with Rocco. But Rocco demands the impossible from Nadia. She has to go back to his broken brother because he has nothing else in life. But the romance between Nadia and Rocco is to resume. Discovered by Simone, who is beside himself with rage at Nadia. It is one of the most horrible scenes in film history. It made me cry. It becomes clear what has become of Simone: a beast. Cowardly, shameless and ruthless. Nadia, on the other hand, seems like a heroine. The comparison may have been overstretched, but it fits: like an opera heroine. Despite the shameful events, Rosario still dreams of living with all her sons under one roof. Even though everything escapes her. Vincenzo does marry Ginetta (it can only be an accident, Rosario says) and Rocco now lives with the young couple. While Simone moves in with Nadia. Rosario is now supposed to accommodate Nadia, while Simone moves around outside and gets drunk. And Rocco? Of all people, he makes a career in boxing, a sport he despises, to feed his family. But Nadia suffers the most painful case. Once an expensive prostitute, she humiliates herself and her husband Simone in revenge. Probably also out of grief at being rejected by Rocco. Is there any hope? There is! The youngest son Luca dreams of returning to the land of olives and sunshine. This land has become a romantic memory in the harsh and bleak north. Only in the south can the family reunite happily. In the land of lemons.
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