The Brothers Karamazov

It didn't for me, but I will definitely rewatch it with this in mind.

- Who is God ?
- When you close your eyes and make a wish, God is the one who doesn't care about.

I may be a bit late with my reply - but still :) Just wanted to support your opinion. I watched “Rocco” for the first time a few days ago, and, while watching, I was constantly tormented by the thought: are the allusions to the “Karamazov” intended, accidental, or maybe, imaginary? One of the brothers is a saint, another is a killer – can such similarity be dismissed as superficial?

So I decided to investigate...

It turns out that Visconti was a connoisseur of the Russian culture. He staged Mussorgsky’s operas and Chekhov’s plays. His theatre production of “Crime and Punishment” was widely acclaimed. And before “Rocco e i suoi fratelli” he made “Le Notti Bianche”, which is based on Dostoyevsky’s novel. He even visited St. Petersburg once and, it is said, was truly impressed.

And – yes! – Visconti dreamed of making a film of “The Brothers Karamazov”. He even wanted to shoot it in Russia. But… the times were wrong. So the dream never came true, but certain motives of the novel sneaked into his original works. Some Russian film critics even call “Rocco” “a loose rendition of “The Karamazov brothers””, but, in my opinion, it is a bit far-fetched…

So, that’s it. Obviously, you were right in your assumption :)

So let me guess, Rocco is Alyosha (the saint), Simone is Dmitri (the sensualist) and Ciro is Ivan (voice of reason), smth like that?

I have seen this film twice - the second time was yesterday. I have read Dostoyevsky, but not The Brothers Karamazov. It's no wonder that Visconti reminds you of Dostoyevsky, he is one of his biggest influences as he was for many filmmakers. Luchino Visconti has even made a film based on a short story by him, Le notti bianche. To my mind the biggest thing that reminds me of Dostoyevsky in Rocco and His Brothers is the criticism for capitalism, which appears in the battle between the good (Rocco) and the bad (Simone). A brilliant film.

"I never said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle"

I just watched the movie after so many years. In my opinion, despite Visconti’s admiration for Dostoyevsky, Rocco and his brothers is the opposite of Karamazov. In Karamazov, they do have a father, who’s influencing brothers’ lives in different ways according to their personalities while in Rocco the father is dead, brothers must do it on their own.
Karamazov is a complex analyze of men relation with their father and God while in Rocco we have brothers’ struggle in a cruel world with a complete absence of the father, and a feeble relation with God.
Grushenka and Nadia are triggering the drama but in complete different ways and for complete different reasons.

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Spoilers oviously.


Even though we have blood relatives involved, I would say that the film has a lot more in common with The Idiot rather than with The Brother Karamazov - it seems obvious that the love triangle between Simone, Rocco and Nadia is more likely influenced by or as a matter of fact even based on the relations between Rogozhin, Prince Myshkin and Nastasya (same story arc with the saint-like protagonist who is close to the psychotic antagonist. The both protagonist and antagonist falls in love with a femme fatale of disputable morale and mental health, however, in the end femme fatale is slain by the antagonist and the story ends with protagonist and antagonist together crying over the death of the femme fatale).

Naturally, the movie is much more than just a retelling of Dostoevsky's masterpiece, you can find a numerous reviews that recognizes nods to the works of A. Miller, T. Mann and others however I would strongly believe that The Brother Karamazov is not one of the main influences.