Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for Rocco and His Brothers (1960) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Alain Delon, Renato Salvatori, Annie Girardot, Katina Paxinou, Alessandra Panaro, Spiros Focás DIRECTOR: Luchino Visconti CINEMATOGRAPHY: Giuseppe Rotunno MUSIC: Nino Rota PRODUCTION: Titanus, Les Films Marceau

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for Rocco and His Brothers (1960). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Production

Rocco and His Brothers was filmed in Milan during the spring of 1960. Locations included Piazza del Duomo, the Milan Cathedral, and the Milano Centrale railway station. Other scenes were shot in Rome, Bellagio, and Civitavecchia. Renato Salvatori (Simone) and Annie Girardot (Nadia) romantically eloped during filming; they got married two years later.

The film's controversial subject matter caused several setbacks. Filming permits were denied for multiple locations that had previously been approved, such as when provincial premier Adrio Casati learned that the climactic murder scene was to be filmed in a large recreational area in Idroscalo. Casati claimed the scene bore an "inopportune resemblance to reality", as a young prostitute had recently been murdered in the area. Visconti moved shooting to Lazio, and the scene was filmed at Lago di Fondi.

During post-production, Visconti re-dubbed and re-edited the film to change the name of the main family from "Pafundi" to "Parondi" after a local judge named Pafundi, who had heard rumors about the film's content and did not want anyone to think it was about him, threatened to sue the producers.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: Nominated for 2 BAFTA 10 wins & 10 nominations total

Awards Won: ★ Grand Jury Prize of the Venice Film Festival

CRITICAL RECEPTION

For The New York Times, Bosley Crowther, gave the film a positive review in which he praised the direction and acting: "A fine Italian film to stand alongside the American classic, The Grapes of Wrath, opened last night... It is Luchino Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers (Rocco e i suoi fratelli), and it comes here garlanded with laurels that are quite as appropriate in this context as they are richly deserved... Signor Visconti has clearly conceived his film and that is what his brilliant handling of events and characters makes one feel. There's a blending of strong emotionalism and realism to such an extent that the margins of each become fuzzy and indistinguishable... Alain Delon as the sweet and loyal Rocco...is touchingly pliant and expressive, but it is Renato Salvatori...who fills the screen with the anguish of a tortured and stricken character. His raw and restless performance is overpowering and unforgettable...[and the] French actress Annie Girardot is likewise striking as the piteous prostitute."

Variety lauded the drama, and wrote: "With all its faults, this is one of the top achievements of the year in Italy... Scripting shows numerous hands at work, yet all is pulled together by Visconti's dynamic and generally tasteful direction. Occasionally, as in the near-final revelation to the family of Simone's crime, the action gets out of hand and comes close to melodrama. Yet the impact of the main story line, aided by the sensitive, expertly guided playing of Alain Delon as Rocco, Annie Girardot as Nadia, and Renato Salvatori as Simone, is great. Katina Paxinou at times is perfect, at others she is allowed to act too theatrically and off-key."

Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote that he found the film "distended, sententious, ostentatiously frank, fundamentally trite, and thematically unsuccessful".