Subscribe to watch - 14-day free trial, then £4.99 a month
Rocco and His Brothers
Italian maestro Luchino Visconti’s epic drama follows a mother and her five sons who move from a small town to Milan, changing their lives forever.
Drama 1960 179 mins
Director: Luchino Visconti
Overview
Swinging between achingly powerful melodrama and the last, pulsating throes of neo-realism, Visconti’s epic character study is a classic of Italian cinema. Following the changing fortunes of a family made up of a mother and her five sons when they move from a provincial town to the big city of Milan, the story of Rocco and His Brothers continues to enthral.
Described by Martin Scorsese as “one of the greatest artists in the history of cinema”, Visconti’s elegance and intelligence as a filmmaker has never been more evident than it is here. With its potent and vivid vision of Italian society on the brink, Rocco and His Brothers is considered one of the last neo-realist films and bridges the gap wonderfully between the old and the new in terms of both story and artistry.
Related
Drama
Goodbye Solo Goodbye Solo
Comedy 2008 87 mins Director: Ramin Bahrani
The pairing of a Senegalese taxi driver and a grumbling old-timer in North Carolina is the basis for the latest insightful portrait of human behaviour from Ramin Bahrani.
Chop Shop Chop Shop
Drama 2007 81 mins Director: Ramin Bahrani
Hopeful and heartbreaking second feature from the director of Man Push Cart.
Servants Servants
Drama 2020 81 mins Director: Ivan Ostrochovský
Ivan Ostrochovský’s stark drama about a seminary’s struggles for religious independence under Communist rule is both beautiful and brutal.
Tides Tides
Drama 2017 100 mins Director: Tupaq Felber
Four thirtysomethings find some much-needed time to reconnect in this beautifully observed and subtly insightful debut.
Tony Takitani Tony Takitani
Drama 2004 76 mins Director: Jun Ichikawa
Award-winning film adapted from Haruki Murakami’s New Yorker tale of solitude and obsession.
Ava Ava
Drama 2017 103 mins Director: Sadaf Foroughi
Sadaf Foroughi's gripping debut about a young girl's coming-of-age in a strict, traditional society.
Italian Classics
8½ 8½
Drama 1963 138 mins Director: Federico Fellini
Fellini triumphantly conjured himself out of writer's block with this magnum opus about a film director experiencing his own creative crisis.
Bicycle Thieves Bicycle Thieves
Drama 1948 89 mins Director: Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio De Sica’s story of a father and son searching for a stolen bicycle on the streets of Rome is a classic of post-war Italian cinema.
Theorem Theorem
Drama 1968 98 mins Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pasolini’s classic about a handsome, enigmatic stranger (Terence Stamp) who arrives at a bourgeois household and seduces an entire family.
La notte La notte
Drama 1961 122 mins Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni's masterpiece stars Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau as a couple re-examining their emotional bonds.
Salon Kitty Salon Kitty
Drama 1976 133 mins Director: Tinto Brass
Before Caligula, Italian provocateur Tinto Brass directed this controversial and transgressive drama, inspired by the true story of a Nazi-run brothel in 30s Berlin.
L'avventura L'avventura
Drama 1960 137 mins Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Antonioni’s masterpiece of modern alienation, with Monica Vitti as the young woman searching for her friend who's inexplicably disappeared.
Featuring Annie Girardot
Hidden Hidden
Drama 2004 113 mins Director: Michael Haneke
A literary TV chat-show host (Daniel Auteuil) discovers the drawbacks to celebrity when he and his wife (Juliette Binoche) start receiving anonymous messages in the form of videos of their home and naively violent drawings.
Directed by Luchino Visconti
Boccaccio '70 Boccaccio '70
Anthology 1962 204 mins Director: Federico Fellini
Four of the greatest Italian directors – Fellini, Visconti, De Sica and Monicelli – join forces with show-stoppers Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg and Romy Schneider in a carousel of sex and satire mocking the mores of Italian '60s society.
New
Goodbye Solo Goodbye Solo
Comedy 2008 87 mins Director: Ramin Bahrani
The pairing of a Senegalese taxi driver and a grumbling old-timer in North Carolina is the basis for the latest insightful portrait of human behaviour from Ramin Bahrani.
Chop Shop Chop Shop
Drama 2007 81 mins Director: Ramin Bahrani
Hopeful and heartbreaking second feature from the director of Man Push Cart.
Catch the Fair One Catch the Fair One
Thriller 2021 86 mins Director: Josef Kubota Wladyka
Haunted by the disappearance of her younger sister two years prior, a former champion boxer (Kali Reis) leaves no stone unturned in her brutal search for answers.
Servants Servants
Drama 2020 81 mins Director: Ivan Ostrochovský
Ivan Ostrochovský’s stark drama about a seminary’s struggles for religious independence under Communist rule is both beautiful and brutal.
Tides Tides
Drama 2017 100 mins Director: Tupaq Felber
Four thirtysomethings find some much-needed time to reconnect in this beautifully observed and subtly insightful debut.
Rojo Rojo
Thriller 2018 105 mins Director: Benjamin Naishtat
Set in a pre-coup d’etat Argentina, successful lawyer Claudio (Darío Grandinetti, Wild Tales) leads a comfortable life – until an altercation in a restaurant and a split-second decision slowly unravel everything he has built up.