Rocco and His Brothers

The touring Cinema Ritrovato festival stops in Providence with a week of recently restored classics. Charlie Chaplin and Federico Fellini are on the bill, but don’t miss Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers, a sprawling family epic that plays like a stark black-and-white opera (minus all the arias). Four poor brothers and one overbearing mom try to escape poverty in Milan, where the family’s eldest son has already found success. Throw in boxing, a doomed prostitute, family honor, competing in-laws, vague homoerotic subtexts, and scenes at the Alfa Romeo factory, and you’ll never know three hours to fly by so quickly.