Luchino Visconti Retrospective

50 years after his passing, rediscover the work of Italian master Luchino Visconti.

In collaboration with Ciné-histoire, we present a double feature on May 31.

This third installment of our Visconti retrospective explores the early period of the renowned filmmaker’s work, when he emerged as one of the key architects of Italian Neorealism. Marked by the fall of Mussolini’s fascist regime, military defeat, occupation, and eventual liberation, postwar Italy faced cities in ruins, widespread unemployment, and deep political disorientation. This context fueled a desire for truth and a strong sense of social responsibility in the arts—particularly in cinema.

Presented together as a double feature, BELLISSIMA (1951) and ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS (1960) stand among Visconti’s major works and hold an essential place in the history of Italian Neorealism. BELLISSIMA offers a poignant and clear-eyed look at a working-class mother and the illusions of the film industry, while ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS expands this realist approach into a sweeping tragic saga of a Southern family migrating to Milan. Through their focus on ordinary lives, social violence, and the tensions of postwar Italy, both films transcend their era and remain landmark achievements in world cinema.