Sunday | June 24, 2018 7:00 pm

Rocco and His Brothers
(Rocco e i suoi fratelli)

Directed by Luchino Visconti.
With Alain Delon, Renato Salvatori, Annie Girardot.
Italy/France, 1960, DCP, black & white, 177 min.
Italian with English subtitles.

Rocco and His Brothers is a devotional work, a pious tragedy set in Visconti’s ancestral home. The narrative follows a migrant family from southern Italy travelling north for better economic prospects. The Milan Cathedral towers above their aspirations, loves, successes and downfall. Alain Delon casts a saintly figure as the title character who rises to become a prizefighter at the expense of his relationship with his apish brother Simone (the Esau to Delon’s Jacob). From the minor miracles—the southern family’s first glimpse of snow, the steam of the modern laundromat, the legendary Milanese fog—to the transcendent climax, in Rocco Visconti perfects the dreamy spirit of White Nights within the space of Catholic mysticism. Restored by Cineteca di Bologna in association with Titanus, TF1 Droits Audiovisuels and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding by Gucci and The Film Foundation.