MOVIE REVIEW : Uncut Version of Visconti’s Epic ‘Rocco’

The late Luchino Visconti’s 1960 “Rocco and His Brothers” (at the Nuart) is the stuff of ‘30s Warner melodrama transformed into a modern epic-scale tragedy. It has a bad brother and a good brother--think of Cagney and Pat O’Brien--in love with the same woman --and both seeing the boxing ring as a way out of poverty.

Thanks to presenter Martin Scorsese, American audiences will be able to see “Rocco and His Brothers” for the first time in its original three-hour length--and in a pristine print that reveals cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno’s ravishingly modulated black-and-white images in all their poetic beauty.

Written by Visconti with several collaborators and inspired by many literary sources--Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot” in particular--in addition to a novel by Giovanni Testori, “Rocco and His Brothers” is a classic tale of a poor family that has left the countryside for a better life in the city.

Because Visconti had the talent and strength to sustain his long running time--and much volcanic emotion along the way--his three central figures emerge completely in the round. They are the gentle, reflective Rocco (Alain Delon) who innocently becomes involved with an earthy prostitute, Nadia (Annie Girardot), not realizing that his weak, volatile brother Simone (Renato Salvatori) has remained hopelessly in love with her after a brief affair. “Rocco and His Brothers” represents these actors at their best, and in the case of Salvatori, the high-water mark of his career. Sadly, Salvatori himself went to seed quickly and died prematurely.

“Rocco and His Brothers” has a sense of life being lived before our eyes plus the rich detailing, the psychological insight and the scope of a major novel and the structure and movement of a work of classic music. (Nino Rota composed the film’s score, which is brooding and far more formal and understated than his more famous one for “La Dolce Vita.”) If Visconti’s first feature “Ossessione,” his 1942 adaptation of “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” can be said to have launched Neo-Realism, then “Rocco and His Brothers” (Times-rated Mature for adult themes and strong violence) is arguably its final great work.

‘Rocco and His Brothers’

Alain Delon: Rocco Parondi

Renato Salvatori: Simone Parondi

Annie Girardot: Nadia

Katina Paxinou: Rosaria Parondi

A Milestone release from the Connoisseur Collection, presented by Martin Scorsese, of an Italo-French co-production: Titanus/Les Films Marceau (Goffredo Lombardo). Director Luchino Visconti. Screenplay Visconti, Suso Cecchi D’Amico and Vasco Pratolini; based on the novel “The Bridge of Ghisolfa” by Giovanni Testori. Producer Giuseppe Bordogni. Cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno. Editor Mario Serandrei. Costumes Piero Tosi. Music Nino Rota. Art director Mario Garbuglia. Sound Giovanni Rossi. In Italian, with English subtitles. Running time: 3 hours.

MPAA-rated Times-rated Mature (adult themes, strong violence).