Epic!
Saturday, August 8, 2026, 12:30 pm to 5:00 pm
Instructor: Maurizio Giammarco, Ph.D., Temple University
Called both “the first neorealist” and “the last decadent,” Luchino Visconti chronicled characters navigating the unrelenting forces of social, economic, and historical change. Rocco and His Brothers (1960) combines the socio-political texture of Visconti’s seminal neorealist work with the formal and thematic dimensions of later period epics, exploring the trials of a poor family who migrates from the rural south to the industrial north looking for a more prosperous life.
Visconti paints a complex portrait of Italy’s post-war modernity, giving full expression to the traumatic events affecting all the brothers engendered by the social forces at work. Borrowing from sources ranging from the Biblical story of Joseph and His Brothers to Thomas Mann, Rocco and His Brothers is operatic, psychological, and expansive, an elaborate narrative divided into sections named after each brother.
Featuring Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale in early notable roles, Rocco and His Brothers catapulted Visconti to the foreground of Italian cinema. With the emotional sweep of a Verdi opera and the narrative density of a 19th-century novel, its mix of realism and intense operatic emotion would later influence, profoundly so, the works of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.
Are you interested in “just” seeing this movie? Visit the public screening page here.
Cinema Classics Seminars offer an entertaining and engaging way to learn more about some of the true classics of world cinema. All students receive an introductory lecture before the film and a guided discussion after the film. In addition, those in attendance receive a ticket to see it on the big screen, as well as popcorn and a drink. Please note: the screening associated with this seminar will be open to the public, as well.
Please contact BMFI Programs and Education Manager Jill Malcolm with any questions.
$30 for members, $40 for non-members
Schedule