Barry Forshaw

ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, Luchino Visconti, director/BFI 4K UHD

The aristocratic Luchino Visconti had been given a book that greatly impressed him, a French translation of James M Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice. From this he would make one of the great Italian films of sexuality and violence, Obsession (Ossessione, 1942), and the inglorious recent past of the Italian cinema quickly receded. An explosion of filmmaking was in the offing, with all genres up for grabs. But the overriding preoccupation for most directors of the period, whether they were from working or middle-class backgrounds (or from a more patrician upbringing, such as Visconti), was the life of the common man. And some of the greatest films produced in Italy would result from this preoccupation, before audiences and directors tired of realism and yearned for colour, and spectacle. And the industry was crammed with filmmakers perfectly prepared to give audiences just what they wanted – even if it upset the all-powerful Catholic Church. Many would argue that Visconti‘s Rocco and his Brothers remains his signature film, combining the gritty blue-collar world of neo-realism with nigh-operatic drama (Visconti, in fact, was one of the great directors of opera). The epic-length film deals with a closely-knit family that leaves Italy’s rural areas for a challenging life in metropolitan Milan. The BFI issue of Rocco on 4K UHD for the first time in the UK is a reminder that Visconti’s 1960 film is one of the great classics of the cinema, and this restoration had a release in UK cinemas by the BFI in 2025. The iconic cast includes Alain Delon (dubbed very persuasively into Italian), Claudia Cardinale, and in a heartbreaking performance as an ill-fated prostitute, Annie Girardot.