La terre tremble

It's hard to believe that I am the first person to comment on this masterpiece at this website. One reason could be that it's not that easy to see. Thank God for Turner Classic Movies, which is where I finally saw it. I'm happy to see that there's a DVD available.

This is one of those amazing films that uses only non-professionals and in which they perform as well, if not better, than any professional could. The actors are the inhabitants of a small Sicilian fishing village. The film is cliche-ridden (the Marxist variety) and at times predictable. I didn't care about any of this. The film is a true epic about a few people trying to break out of their rut of exploitation and the wretchedness of their everyday living, and failing. The film thus achieves the status of true tragedy. This one shouldn't be missed.

I saw this movie Friday night on TCM. I'd never heard of it, but I'm a neorealismo fan, so I watched. I'm sorry I didn't tape it, what an epic! Like "The bicycle thief," this movie uses real people, and almost feels like a documentary at times. I agree that the sentiments are rather marxist, but I have to admit that if I lived as these people do, I might be drawn to communism, too. There are some subtle (or maybe not so subtle) references to the politics of the times, wall posters about Mussolini and the hammer and sickle images painted on the walls. Oddly, this movie reminded me somewhat of "Man of Aran," the images are that stark, life is that bleak. The film is beautifully shot, and the story is wrenching. Watch it if you get the opportunity. It memorializes a way of life that is gone, and I'll bet there's not a single person who misses it.

Luchino Visconti's vivid portrayal of the grinding poverty endured by Sicilian fishermen under the oppressive rule of grasping wholesalers is a relentlessly grim saga that casts an unflattering light on the crowd's blind propensity to condemn those who strive to rise above their lot in life. Depressing stuff, but hugely compelling in spite of its lengthy running time.

A Marxist aristocrat, Count Don Luchino Visconti Di Morone was widely praised for both the realism and vaguely politicized tone of his early films, and the operatic sumptuousness of his later historical costume dramas... Throughout his career, however, style dominated content; all too often, the result was camp, decorative melodrama disguised as solemn, socially significant art...

"La Terra Trema," an epic account of the hardship suffered by Sicilian fishermen, was even closer to Neo-realism, shot on location with a cast of nonprofessional actors living their lives on screen... Its somewhat simplistic Marxist message, that the peasants' real enemy was not Nature but exploitive businessmen, was in fact less indicative of Visconti's future and its use of a disintegrating family to mirror the social climate of Italy as a whole...

The conflicts, misery, poverty, joy, and anger in a fishing village are shown in a panoramic study of man and earth...

'The Earth will Tremble' is not political nor intends to teach... The film reveals... it doesn't judge...

The cinematography is outstanding, particularly the scenes with the fishermen at sea...

Although it was supposed to be a documentary, Visconti put in a slight story line to achieve what a documentary would have done, AND MORE. --He used no professional actors, just native Sicilian fishermen, and other villagers, to play all parts. -- The film uses no artificial lighting, no sound enhancement, sound-effects, or dubbing. -- It was filmed on location in, and around, the crumbling homes of the poor villagers, and it was recorded in the Sicilian dialect (rather than proper Italian), and although it has a documentary "look", Visconti shows the exploitation of the poor by the capitalist middlemen so much more effectively than any documentary could have done.

-- Also, while not the first neo-realist film of that post-war Italian genre, this was the first film to be described by the term: "neo-realist". --A brilliant film on all counts. I rated it "10".