Rocco and His Brothers (1960), Luchino Visconti

 

Having traces of Truffaut all over, Visconti's bleak progression of a coming of age signatory epic, gradually built on the existing societal void, works as the main element to propel it's potential of humanistic convictions towards the achievable peak in every act of the film.

Primarily suggesting the rough prospects of character decay over time where every character shifts the processes of modernization throughout, Visconti employs a bunch of idealistically driven and stout characters of emotional sharpness in absolute contrast to immensely realist conditions.

What starts the screenplay with the ambiance and preoccupations of Neorealism, soon disintegrates it's political hold into examinations of intimacy followed by a not so distant familial disintegration. Visconti never leaves aside the formal exploration of urban individualism, yielding equally profound character dynamics and their developmental contexts.

Shifting from the initial satirical setting of the screenplay to an intense melodrama of relational feuds where the disposition of sexually charged tensions, homoerotic exposures and violent desperation obstructing humane consciences perfectly sit accordingly in the life phases to procure a meaning.

'Rocco and His Brothers' devastate and astonish you simultaneously. What devastates even more than the despaired outcomes of a love triangle, is the soulful indiscretion of Rocco (Alain Delon) and Nadia, (Annie Girardot) as the consequence of what might be one of the most disturbing and shattering scenes in conventional cinema; the rape of Nadia where Rocco's powerless witnessing of the barbarity impacts us unfathomably.

Triggering traditionalists, amusements are drawn as the character dynamics of Rocco precedes to hypocrisy as well as analytical traits, which start to corrode any presumptions drawn on him. The uncanny and somewhat irking response of Rocco to Nadia on her rape as he states that he despises his brother Smone (Renato Salvatori) for his actions but still chooses to give the opportunity of redemption to him, makes him momentarily unbearable.

With all the fluctuations on his characters rooting to huge volume of blooming maturities, Visconti amazes yet again with his visual treatment and technicalities by crisply capturing both the melodrama and the alienated townscape it's set upon; whereby with a frequent usage of high angle shots maintain the relishing aesthetics of almost every frame.

'Rocco and His Brothers' is an unflinching and tenacious piece of work on melodramatic complexity mainly on the conflicts of love and relational feuds that considers a certain sexual current as it's non reconciled undertone.