Tre fratelli

Philippe Noiret and Michele Placido

Francesco Rosi's Tre fratelli (Three Brothers), from 1981, is a middling effort from the great Italian director. Rosi and Tonino Guerra based the screenplay on a Andrei Platanov's short story, The Third Son, in which six sons descend upon their ancestral village to attend their mother's funeral. The film moves the village from Russia to Southern Italy where most films by the Neapolitan Rosi are set. The number of sons has been cut from six in Platanov's story to a more manageable three. Each represents a distinct strata of society. Rocco (Vittorio Mezzogiorno) is a lay minister leading a humble existence at a reform school run by the church. Michele Placido plays Nicola, a factory worker in Turin with Communist leanings. He has a troubled marriage and brings his six year old daughter with him to the village. Raffaele (Philippe Noiret) is a judge living in Rome, a model of bourgeois propriety.

Tre fratelli was made during one of the most tumultuous periods in Italy since a parliamentary republic had been established in the wake of World War 2. Terrorism, perpetuated by both the Red Brigade and organized crime, had taken the lives of many public officials culminating in the murder of Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978. This era is well covered in a beautifully written and learned book, Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb, which also covers Southern Italian cuisine and culture. Many of the murdered officials were judges who had sentenced Red Brigade and Mafia members. In the film, Raffaele lives in constant fear of assassination and packs a hand gun just in case. 

This background informs the ideological arguments between the elite Raffaele and the proletariat Nicola. Unfortunately, the dialogue often comes off as talking points. Tre fratelli is weakest when is at its most rhetorical, such as a teacher friend of Raffaele's describing Italy as "bloodthirsty, violent, barbaric" while brandishing a copy of a book of essays by Alberto Moravia. Both the story and film are too acutely schematic for my taste. The skill of the actors, particularly Noiret and Placido, helps to make the more sententious moments of Tre fratelli palatable. Vittorio Mezzogiorno fare less well because Rosi doesn't seem invested in his character's spiritual struggles.

Tre fratelli does have enchanting moments, though. Whenever Rosi shoots from the point of Nicola's father or little daughter. the flick soars. Rosi's magical realism, suffused with the texture of rural Italy work better than the trotting out of ideological positions. The nostalgic flashbacks of the mother's strength during World War 2 glow with heartfelt power. The cinematography by Pasqualino De Santis calls to mind his work on Rossi's Christ Stopped at Eboli, burnished earth tones contrasted with sun drenched stone. Rossi is underrated as a stylist because his style does not call attention to itself. A middling film by Rossi is a very fine film indeed.