I've just watched a masterpiece, that's all there is to it. In my journey through the cinematic landscape I thought I'd watch some classics of Italian cinema. The name Luschino Visconti is highly regarded so I picked up 'Obessione', it wasn't bad, I picked up 'Rocco...' and was left amazed, this is two hours and 45 minutes of human drama that just simply unravels before your eyes. I tried getting through it before but was too tired, I left it and came back to it tonight and the film slowly drew me in and weaved it's magic.
The film is about a mother and her 5 sons, Simone, Rocco, Vincenzo, Ciro and Luca. Vincenzo has already made it to Milan and is engaged to Ginetta (Claudio Cardinale, her role is minimal) when the rest of his family arrive at the engagement party an argument ensues between the two mothers forcing Rosaria and her sons to find a council flat to stay in while her sons find work, Simone becomes a boxer, Rocco finds work in a drycleaners, Ciro studies for a degree in engineering before finding work at the local alfa romeo factory. The main and most profoundly moving plotline is the love triangle between Simone, Rocco and the woman that comes between them, the sexually adventurous Nadia, her reputation as the woman about town is well known but she's attracted to Simone for various reasons, none of them good, we see that Simone is easily corrupted and the film charts his decline with gutwrenching accuracy.
The performances in this film are staggering, Alain Delon is excellent as 'Rocco' it could've been boring and one-note seeing as his character is represented as the good son but he turns in a performance that is so affecting here, he wants to help his brother and he will do anything and everything he can to do so but at a personal cost he can't or won't understand. Renato Salvati is the bad son, no, that's not quite right, he's just led down the wrong path, he's easily attracted to things which bring out his animal nature, like Nadia and also partying, smoking, drinking when he should be training. Everything that happens to him is self-inflicted but the film doesn't take the easy road of making him a total villain, that's not how real life works, he's just a weak man and Renato gives a performance that is so good, it hurts to watch what he becomes. Annie Girardot caps the threeway with a superbly layered performance as Nadia, the woman who comes between Simone and Rocco, but not intentionally, the film again, doesn't paint her as a simply a whore, it's only when she meets Rocco that she finally learns that she's worth more than she thinks she is and it's that tragic set-up when Simone learns they've been seeing each other that the film goes to another level, you could call it melodrama but it's damn good melodrama.
I couldn't help but notice parallels between this film and Raging Bull, especially with the character of Simone and his inability to control his nature and how it finally ruins him
This film is excellent, Visconti is in full control of them medium here, some shots are simply breathtaking but I'll leave that to you to discover what they are.
The film is about a mother and her 5 sons, Simone, Rocco, Vincenzo, Ciro and Luca. Vincenzo has already made it to Milan and is engaged to Ginetta (Claudio Cardinale, her role is minimal) when the rest of his family arrive at the engagement party an argument ensues between the two mothers forcing Rosaria and her sons to find a council flat to stay in while her sons find work, Simone becomes a boxer, Rocco finds work in a drycleaners, Ciro studies for a degree in engineering before finding work at the local alfa romeo factory. The main and most profoundly moving plotline is the love triangle between Simone, Rocco and the woman that comes between them, the sexually adventurous Nadia, her reputation as the woman about town is well known but she's attracted to Simone for various reasons, none of them good, we see that Simone is easily corrupted and the film charts his decline with gutwrenching accuracy.
The performances in this film are staggering, Alain Delon is excellent as 'Rocco' it could've been boring and one-note seeing as his character is represented as the good son but he turns in a performance that is so affecting here, he wants to help his brother and he will do anything and everything he can to do so but at a personal cost he can't or won't understand. Renato Salvati is the bad son, no, that's not quite right, he's just led down the wrong path, he's easily attracted to things which bring out his animal nature, like Nadia and also partying, smoking, drinking when he should be training. Everything that happens to him is self-inflicted but the film doesn't take the easy road of making him a total villain, that's not how real life works, he's just a weak man and Renato gives a performance that is so good, it hurts to watch what he becomes. Annie Girardot caps the threeway with a superbly layered performance as Nadia, the woman who comes between Simone and Rocco, but not intentionally, the film again, doesn't paint her as a simply a whore, it's only when she meets Rocco that she finally learns that she's worth more than she thinks she is and it's that tragic set-up when Simone learns they've been seeing each other that the film goes to another level, you could call it melodrama but it's damn good melodrama.
I couldn't help but notice parallels between this film and Raging Bull, especially with the character of Simone and his inability to control his nature and how it finally ruins him
This film is excellent, Visconti is in full control of them medium here, some shots are simply breathtaking but I'll leave that to you to discover what they are.
