Rocco and His Brothers

This is perhaps Visconti's most powerful work, though today it may seem a little overwrought and dated.

"Rocco e sui fratelli" from 1960 is about a rural family (Katina Paxinou as Rosaria, Alain Delon as Rocco, Renato Salvatori as Simone, Spiros Focás as Vincenzo, Max Cartier as Ciro and Rocco Vidolazzi as Luca) who move from southern Italy to Milano, hoping to make a better life for themselves.

The brothers are all different, and therein lies the story, with the focus particularly on Rocco (Delon), a gentle soul who cares about his family and his family's honor, and Simone (Salvatori), a man with an addictive personality who only cares about himself.

Both Rocco and Simone fall for the same woman, a hooker (Anne Girardot) and come to blows - physically, since both Simone and Rocco train as boxers.

This isn't always an easy film to watch as it contains violence, rape, and murder. It also is extremely melodramatic by today's standards, with Paxinou's strong performance as the mother perhaps being viewed today as over the top. Acting styles have changed.

It's also a rather misogynistic film - well, it is Italy, it is another time period, and I'm not one who believes in cancel culture. It is also overly long - I saw the cut version, I believe, 168 minutes. I think certain scenes were cut due to censorship.

Though the film is in black and white, the look of Italy is amazing and expansive, as is the acting, particularly from Delon and Salvatori as they come up against one another in a biblical story. Claudia Cardinale pre-nosejob has a small role.

Delon, of course, is gorgeous. Hard to believe he'll be 85 this year.