Rocco and His Brothers

[hearthesilence]

FWIW, I wrote about Bellissima after seeing it in 2018:

Supposedly a rarely screened film, Lincoln Center showed an excellent 35mm print these past few days, and it is indeed quite wonderful. It's a great showcase for Anna Magnani, all the more striking for being a full-out comedy. (It was mentioned that Visconti didn't do any other straight comedies, and this was the first time I've seen Anna Magnani in a comic role though she's always had wonderfully amusing scenes in her dramatic work.)

I do remember this film is incredibly verbose. Subtitles should be appearing for longer than a second though.

It was indeed incredibly verbose - Magnani's character talks to herself non-stop, but it's hilarious.

Some of the domestic fights seem like inspirations for those in Scorsese's own films. (There were many laughs from the sold out audience, but the biggest one came when one of their neighbors struggled to make it down the stairs to break up a fight, yelling "momento! momento!") Most of it seems primarily a showcase for Magnani, but the last 15-20 minutes are perfect, from the second they step into the projection room all the way to the end.

[Finch]

I've seen Bellissima only once through MoC's DVD but I remember enjoying it even if that was literally over close to two decades ago and it being very, uhm, noisy (but so are HK comedies and many Japanese samurai and Yakuza films - in a way it's startling that the same country also produced Ozu and Kore-eda). My single viewing of Obsessione on the English-friendly Italian DVD goes back a decade-plus too but I remember enjoying it more than Rocco which I thought was "fine". Still I appreciated it more than Death in Venice which I absolutely couldn't stand.

[Michael Kerpan]

I think even Neapolitan is technically considered a separate language as well.

[Sloper]

I'm with hearthesilence on Bellissima, it's a wonderful film - especially from the projection booth scene onwards. I recently saw Frances Ha for the first time, and Greta Gerwig's performance in that made me think of Magnani's in Bellissima. They're both playing characters who can't/won't shut up, and who don't seem to have an un-vocalised thought or feeling, but both performances also feel intricately crafted and calibrated. It's incredible how Magnani can be so spontaneous and (seemingly) improvisational, and yet she never puts a syllable wrong or hits a wrong note (or the wrong volume, in my opinion - she yells, shrieks, or mutters precisely when she needs to). What's most impressive is that she makes her character sympathetic and three-dimensional from start to finish, and never allows the film to lapse too much into the mother-scolding morality tale it might easily have been.

I go back and forth on whether Rocco is a masterpiece or slightly over-egged, but there are some scenes that always hit me like a ton of bricks. I plan to get slightly drunk the next time I watch it, as this usually makes me more susceptible to the kinds of wailing-and-gnashing-of-teeth that are served up here.

Ossessione and The Leopard will probably always be my favourite Viscontis, as I saw them very early in my discovery of world cinema. I have especially fond memories of watching a terrible-looking vhs bootleg of The Leopard, which helped to accentuate the 'never seen anything like this before' feeling I got from this strange, slow, melancholy epic.

[HJackson]

I streamed it over BFI Player at the start of the year - the first rewatch since first seeing it on the Masters of Cinema DVD many moons ago. It's a great movie but the streaming version didn't have an intermission and it could do with one - and the internet seems to suggest (at a quick glance) that it's meant to have one. It's the internet though, so who knows.

Even more egregious, I revisited Lawrence of Arabia on iPlayer around the same time and the same was true there too. I guess with home viewing you can pause the movie whenever you want to go for a piss, but I'd rather have a natural break in the action marked out where intended.

[vertigo]

There's an excellent documentary from BBC called The times and Lives of Count Luchino Visconti.
What is BBC four? Is a channel for Art and History? I don't know.

It's available on Youtube. I'd like they could put on the disc, because all houses use the Carlo Lizzani's 1 hour film he did make for RAI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lhSgbHd1xk

[MichaelB]

BBC stuff is a licensing nightmare, which is why you very, very rarely encounter it as Blu-ray extras.

[Lowry_Sam]

BBC stuff is a licensing nightmare, which is why you very, very rarely encounter it as Blu-ray extras.

That's interesting in that presumably anything the BBC does should be for the benefit of the public & not for private profit. Making things available on Youtube might help with that end, but it seems that locking up material under copyright would mean that material meant for benefit of the public actually gets less exposure because it was done by the BBC (unless whomever at the BBC deems it worthy of a release). Or is the BBC a private company (and protecting its own interests) now too?

[MichaelB]

This is too intricate a topic for me to answer comprehensively right now, but one of the many complicating factors is that, for the most part, BBC productions were only intended for broadcast once or twice.

Which means, as in the similar case of California Split, that all third-party music and clip rights need to be cleared again for retail - and this is often unaffordable, especially if we’re dealing with a mere Blu-ray extra, where the label will only be able to pay a flat fee.

By way of example, when I put together the BFI’s Jan Švankmajer set, I was after three documentaries and was prepared to offer a fair market rate for each. Two
rightsholders accepted, but the BBC wanted—and I’m not exaggerating—twenty times the maximum that I was prepared to pay. Because they do all the work of clip rights checking and clearances in-house and pass the costs on in full.

[cdnchris]

Would the same clearances need to be done again if the license was renewed? I'm thinking of a couple BBC extras Criterion included on titles initially (The River and Short Cuts) only to drop them on reissues.

[Lowry_Sam]

That seems to be a different scenario for video/film which may or may not have (third party) music rights, as it seems music artists don’t seem to have such issues for including Peel Sessions or Whistle Test videos when re-releasing deluxe editions of their work.

[vertigo]

Yelling and talking like a gun machine when it shoots? Well, that's what I think with James Cagney, lol.
Complaining about passionate Italians in these thread? Wow, let's hope Giorgia Meloni did not read your words.

I've got borderline personality disorder, and rewatching Visconti's films I could discover several BDP cases.
I remember Alida Valli in Senso, Renato Salvatori here in Rocco, Jean Sorel in Sandra, Silvana Mangano in Le streghe, the king Ludwig, very clear the 5 ones.

There are a lot of non famous BDPs in cinema, I should write an essay. John Cromwell's The Goddess, Jeanne Moreau in Jules et Jim.
Audrey Hepburn at Tiffanys, she was like watching myself.

[Beloved Aunt]

Which means, as in the similar case of California Split, that all third-party music and clip rights need to be cleared again for retail

I have to admit, in this case I find this kind of preposterous. Is the estate of Phyllis Shotwell really expecting a million bucks?

[MichaelB]

Which means, as in the similar case of California Split, that all third-party music and clip rights need to be cleared again for retail

I have to admit, in this case I find this kind of preposterous. Is the estate of Phyllis Shotwell really expecting a million bucks?

I don't know who's demanding, but they can set whatever price tag they please; it's their property and their rules. The onus was on the producer to clear all relevant rights at the time of production—which is why contracts these days have sweeping clauses like "via a medium yet to be invented" and "throughout the entire universe", in order to prevent California Split-style scenarios whereby only some of the rights were cleared at the time, making it only possible to exploit the film theatrically or on TV (or via streaming, which is deemed legally equivalent to broadcasting), but not home video—or at least not without shelling out eye-watering additional sums.

With BBC dramas, things get even more complicated, because the original contracts typically only allowed for three screenings maximum, and no commercial retail (or rather, they didn't explicitly say "no commercial retail", but they didn't take that future possibility into account). The "three screenings maximum" stipulation was because of an agreement with the actors' union Equity, which was worried that when the BBC built up a sufficiently large back catalogue, they'd just keep rebroadcasting it endlessly, thus causing major unemployment in the acting profession—but the upshot of that is that while the BBC owns the master copies, they often don't own all the associated rights. Famously, the very first Doctor Who serial isn't available on the iPlayer because the author's son won't play ball, and this is why the amount of 20th century archival material available via the iPlayer is far less than you'd expect given the wealth of it in the BBC's archives. (This article is an excellent primer as to the history of all this.)

The BFI's deservedly legendary Alan Clarke at the BBC box was as much a triumph of contractual negotiation as it was disc production logistics, although happily in that case everyone concerned was wildly enthused about the project (Clarke seems to have been genuinely adored by virtually everyone that he worked with) and very keen for it to be as comprehensive as possible. But it still generated a ton of paperwork along the way.

[vertigo]

I have lived part time abroad but I've never watched telly, that includes BBC, what a low-class, ignorant and hick I am.

[domino harvey]

I have lived part time abroad but I've never watched telly, that includes BBC, what a low-class, ignorant and hick I am.

Mod here: vertigo, I’m glad you found the forum and have discovered so many threads that interest you. But, and this is coming from the member with by far the most posts here, you gotta pump the brakes on posting and bumping threads in mass volume. It’s one thing when you contribute insights into the film or discussion, but you are posting so much in such a small span of time that casual/“empty” posts (which are not a big deal in small doses) are more visible and it’s becoming something of a nuisance. We’re not going anywhere, these threads will be here tomorrow, next week, next month. Pace yourself a bit so that you don’t burn out or burn others out

[vertigo]

Mod here: vertigo, I’m glad you found the forum and have discovered so many threads that interest you. But, and this is coming from the member with by far the most posts here, you gotta pump the brakes on posting and bumping threads in mass volume. It’s one thing when you contribute insights into the film or discussion, but you are posting so much in such a small span of time that casual/“empty” posts (which are not a big deal in small doses) are more visible and it’s becoming something of a nuisance. We’re not going anywhere, these threads will be here tomorrow, next week, next month. Pace yourself a bit so that you don’t burn out or burn others out

All right fellow, I agree you, but I sometimes give information too.

[yoloswegmaster]

Extras:

Restored 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Newly commissioned audio commentary by film critic and writer Adrian Martin
The Flavour of Scandal: An Interview with Caterina d'Amico (2017, 40 mins): the daughter of screenwriter Suso Cecchi d'Amico, discusses the genesis and production of Rocco and His Brothers
Interviews with cast and crew of Rocco and His Brothers (2017, 34 mins): a compendium of archive interviews including Claudia Cardinale, Mario Garbuglia, Annie Girardot, Guiseppe Rotunno, Piero Tosi, and Suso Cecchi d'Amico
Alain Delon – Luchino Visconti: The Encounter (41 mins): through analyses and interwoven narratives by Laurence Schifano (Visconti's biographer) and Olivier Rajchman (Delon's biographer), Jérôme Wybon revisits Rocco and His Brothers and the film's place within both actors' careers
Les coulisses du tournage (2003, 21 mins): a documentary looking at the production history of Rocco and His Brothers
Treasures from the BFI National Archive (1925-1964, 78 mins): a selection of newsreels and public information films exploring some of the strands touched upon in Rocco and His Brothers
**FIRST PRESSING ONLY** New writing on the film by Guy Adams, an essay on Nino Rota’s score by Charlie Brigden and writing on the films from the BFI National Archive by Sarah Wood

[MichaelB]

Final specs announced:

ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS
A film by Luchino Visconti
Starring Alain Delon

4K Restoration

Released on BFI UHD on 22 June 2026 and on Amazon Prime and Apple TV on 13 July 2026

Starring the great Alain Delon (The Samurai, The Leopard) in one of his most iconic roles, Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers is considered among the last works of Italian neorealism and bridges the gap wonderfully between the old and the new in both storytelling and artistry. Now restored in 4K, it comes to UHD (with the special features on a Blu-ray disc), released by the BFI on 22 June, with extras including a new audio commentary by film historian Adrian Martin.

The Italian maestro’s epic drama follows a mother and her five sons who move to Milan from a small town in southern Italy, changing their lives forever. This hypnotically beautiful tale of migration, loss and sacrifice became a huge influence on the work of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.

Special features
• Restored 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• New audio commentary by film historian Adrian Martin
• The Flavour of Scandal: An Interview with Caterina d’Amico (2017, 41 mins): the daughter of screenwriter Suso Cecchi d’Amico discusses the genesis and production of Rocco and His Brothers
• Interviews with cast and crew (2017, 34 mins): a compendium of archive interviews, including Claudia Cardinale, Mario Garbuglia, Annie Girardot, Giuseppe Rotunno, Piero Tosi and Suso Cecchi d’Amico
• Alain Delon – Luchino Visconti: la rencontre (2016, 42 mins): a look at the careers of the director and the actor and their work together
• Les coulisses du tournage (2003, 21 mins): a documentary on the production of Rocco and His Brothers
• Treasures from the BFI National Archive (1925-1964, 79 mins): a selection of newsreels and public information films exploring strands touched upon in Visconti’s drama
• Original theatrical trailer
• **FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Illustrated booklet with new writing on the film by Guy Adams, an essay on Nino Rota’s score by Charlie Brigden and writing on the films from the BFI National Archive by Sarah Wood; notes on the special features and film credits

Product details
RRP: £29.99/ Cat. no. BFIU0027 / Cert 15
Italy, France / 1960 / black and white / 179 mins / Italian language with optional English subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.85:1 // UHD100: 2160p, 24fps, DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono (48kHz/24-bit) BD50: 1080p, 24fps + 1080i, 60fps, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio (320kbps)