with Walter Korte

Luchino Visconti’s family-centered epic follows the mixed fortunes of the Parondi family as they move from rural southern Italy to the industrial northern city of Milan seeking a better life after the untimely death of the family patriarch. Individual chapters follow each of the five brothers as they face prejudice, poverty, and the ultimate test of familial bonds. Rocco (Alain Delon), the middle of five brothers, battles his older sibling Simone (Renato Salvatori) over a reformed prostitute (Annie Girardot) and their rival prizefighting careers. Ultimately, all the story lines wind inextricably back together as a loving family is torn apart by lust, greed, jealousy, and their desire to rise above their class station. The spare black-and-white photography by Guiseppe Rotunno, as well as the haunting score by Nino Rota, lends power to this classic of Italian Neo-realist cinema that has been the inspiration for directors Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.