ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS (1960, ITALY), THREE BROTHERS (1981, ITALY), BEST OF YOUTH (2003, ITALY)

Renato Salvatori and Alain Delon 

in Rocco and His Brothers

Rocco and His Brothers is Luchino Visconti's contemporary drama about five brothers who move from poor Southern Italy to the North with their widowed mother and attempt to find some measure of success in life there. The movie is divided under five chapters, named for each of the brothers. The primary fraternal relationship of the story does seem to revolve around the hot-tempered second brother, Simone Parondi (Renato Salvatori) and the almost saintly third brother Rocco Parondi (Alain Delon). This is an epic and beautifully layered film that develops the relationships quite compellingly. It  is most deserving of being on a must-watch list and is quite gripping throughout its three hour running time.

Claudia Cardinale in Rocco and His Brothers

Claudia Cardinale Alert: Earlier in the life of this blog, I pointed out that Claudia Cardinale had appeared in many more "1001 movies" than her more famous contemporary, Sophia Loren. I actually missed that Claudia had a supporting role as the wife of the eldest brother in Rocco and His Brothers. I'll remember never to sell Claudia short again.

Nino Rota musical alert: Composer Nino Rota is most famous to many of us for his Godfather score. I can hear occasional reminders of the music of that film in Rota's score for Rocco and His Brothers.

Phillipe Noiret (Raffaele) and Michele Placido (Nicola)

in Three Brothers

We are also dealing with three Italian siblilngs in Francesco Rosi's Three Brothers (I prefer the Italian title, Tre Fratelli). Unlike, Rocco and His Brothers, the storyline for Three Brothers begins with the death of the matriarch, not the patriarch of the family. The tre fratelli come to be there for their father. We have the older Raffaele, who is an important judge presiding over a terrorism case. The younger brother Nicola, is a militant factory worker coming off a divorce. The middle son is named Rocco (And ode to the earlier film perhaps?). Rocco is the most enigmatic of the three and runs a boy's correctional institute. The relationship between the three is the heart of the film. Raffaele is a reluctant public figure, in that his dealings with prosecuting certain criminal figures may be putting his life in danger. Nicola is the emotional one, who holds nothing back and often suffers in his personal relationships. Rocco is the most reserved of the three. Nicola grills Rocco at one point in the film as to why he never has seems to have a girlfriend, naturally implying that he may be homosexual. This is a strong family drama and I think it makes a pretty good double feature with Rocco and His Brothers...

Brothers Nicola (Luigi Lo Cascio) and Matteo (Alessio Boni) 

look after mental patient Giorgia (Jasmine Trinca)

...Check that...We're going to have to make that a triple feature! The Best of Youth is an Italian drama from 2003 that was originally made as a mini-series, but did have a theatrical release at the time in two parts. The six-plus hour running time is honestly the main reason I put this one off until now. The main focus of the story is...two brothers! The story begins in 1966 and runs all the way until 2003. This big story does not lend itself to a concise plot summary, but the story of Matteo, Nicholas, their family, friends, loves, a mentally ill woman, politics and coping with death justifies its running time and was well worth my time.

Matteo and Nicola with their shared love 

Mirella (Maya Sansa)

Da questo giorno in poi fino alla fine dei tempi, senza che ci si ricordi: noi pochi, noi pochi felici, siamo una...banda di fratelli.

-William Shakespeare

THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS (1970, ITALY), CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI (1979, ITALY), NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS (1982, ITALY)

The Garden of the Finzi-Contitis

Vittorio de Sica's The Garden of the Finzi-Contitis shows the slow descent of the lives of some affluent Italian Jews during the coming of Fascism before World War II. They learn that they may not be first on the list, but the oppressors will eventually come for them and even if they do have the ability to hide behind a wall for the time being.

We would like to reach up to the screen and shake them (the family) by the shoulders, even though there's reason to think that they were warned often enough...(They felt) Anti-Semitism,  like bad taste could never hurt them if it were thoroughly avoided.-David Denby, New York Times, January 2, 1972

Christ Stopped at Eboli

Christ Stopped at Eboli is the story of a doctor who is exiled to a small town. He eventually forms a bit of a bond with some of the citizens there who need his services as a doctor. We see the doctor originally by his situation forced to be an outsider and then how he comes to be needed by the people of the town. He also realizes how his situation is forced by powers out of his control, but manages hints of self determination and individuality despite the limitation put on him by his captors.

This is director Francesco Rosi's masterpiece, and seeing it, in either its two or three and a half hour version, is a cathartic experience, with unforgettable moments. M. Owen Lee, The Best Films of Our Years, 2007

Night of the Shooting Stars

During the last stages of World War II, a group of citizens try to escape a small village and meet up with Allied soldiers. Night of the Shooting Stars is interesting in that by necessity the villagers have to leave their home and seek freedom elsewhere. The village is not the houses and the stores and the church. It's the people.

The full fresco treatment that the directors give to the event of that summer is based on their own wartime experiences as adolescents, and on the accounts of others; it's this teeming, fecund mixture, fermenting in their heads for almost 40 years, that produces the film's giddy, hallucinated realism.-Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies, 1985