But I had seen a few, some, like Il Conformista by Bertollucci, were disappointments and dampened my enthusiasm for Italian Cinema, but others such as Luchino Visconti's Il Gappardo made their way into my list of all time favourites.
In fact, seeing Il Gappardo was very much a turning point for me, before then I had just assumed that Italian Cinema was "not for me". Fortunately, I was wrong. Il Gappardo lead to Fellini's 8 1/2 which I loved and since then I've found myself enjoying Italian Cinema much more than ever before.
But one of the highlights would definitely be a film I watched recently, by Luchino Visconti again, named Rocco e i Suoi Fratelli or Rocco and His Brothers.
It's a film that may appear simple at first glance, but hides a depth of emotion and a maturity that is increasingly hard to find in Cinema. Rocco and His Brothers is a film about conflict, family, tainted love and much more.
It is a masterpiece and only confirms what I had suspected, that Visconti is one of Cinema’s most talented directors, who sadly doesn't get as much praise or recognition as his less talented compatriots such as Bertollucci and Antonioni.
