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42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The first Neo-realist film,
By A Customer
This review is from: La Terra Trema [1948] [DVD] (DVD)
A hugely moving film which works on every level - as a documentary, social commentary and as a tragic fable about an individual's misfortunes. I was interested to learn that the film was also inspired by the short story "I Malavoglia" by Giovanni Verga. Visconti's second film is unashamedly political but not polemic. It seems to spring from a tremendous compassion rather than tremulous anger. The way the director concentrates on an entire community as well as an individual in it (Antonio) is a master-class in cinematic technique. Whole panoramas of village life are shown through the subtle thread of individuals' perceptions (the boy wandering through the quayside fish market, for example) and the flavour and mood of this merciless Sicilian village prints itself on every scene. The sea, which determines the entire community's fate, is subtly ever-present throughout La Terra Trema through sound and rhythm. If the film feels a little ponderous at times it is because, Visconti suggests, this place has a (sometimes hostile) rhythm of its own. The fact that La Terra Trema is rarely shown and difficult to get hold of is unbelievable; it's widely regarded as the first Neorealist film and has influenced two generations of artists. Significantly, Francesco Rosi and Franco Zeffirelli were the two assistants. Once you see it, you won't forget it.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
VISCONTI'S CHRONICLES OF NEO-REALIST VICISSITUDES IN A SICILIAN CLAN,
By usman "usman latif khawaja" (london -havering -u.k) - See all my reviews
This review is from: La Terra Trema [1948] [DVD] (DVD)
Visconti's second movie encompasses the woes and joys of a Sicilian fishing village ,from the great opening scene where rough and tough young men push their boats into a rising golden dawn ,you are aware of a dynamic power that imbues this poignant and poetic neo-realistic drama ,much as it borrows from the cinema of Vittorio de Sica ,it delivers even more from an auteur who is seeking to study the human spirit set against the seedy backdrop of corporate corruption and exploitation .
The movie craves for social reform ,as it follows the miserable life of a local ordinary family whose existence depends on the fishing trade ,and though at times the tragedy is overwrought in it's wistful and realistic notes,so is life itself in it's cruel reality,and Visconti creates an aura and atmosphere of austere poverty and vicissitude,which is heart-rending if you possess a heart . It does portray it's characters in stylish monochrome with frames that are fearsomely realistic from the squalor of the humble village and the spectacle of the majestic sea with the fishing expeditions by the hard hewn toiling young men ,who are just a piece of exploitative preys in the eyes of local wholesale dealers,though there is no statement in a sermon in the tone of the great artistic Visconti ,who shows that humane joys can emerge out of dire misery as well ,as essayed by the brief romance between a young woman and her working class suitor ,who are charmingly shown flirting in the narrow alleys of the village . The cast is a non professional amateur crew but it looks like a real slice of life itself ,from the filming of the great boat wreck in a sea-storm ,to the diseased elderly grandfather ,and the plight of the women who always suffer the most in this social dilemma of poverty and need ,this is a moving account ,but it is strictly for cineastes and fans of neo-real European cinema in stark black and white reality . The movie can easily be designated as anti-capitalism ,but it remains a moving saga of the survival of human spirit against all odds and has survived extremely well through the decades . The movie runs for 160 minutes and was originally released in theatres in two halves with an interval ,which of course does not interrupt the digital release . Also the original controversy that surrounds the movie and it's plight at box-office is no longer haunting this classic as it has proved it's really worthy of the sea salt with the wheel of the time .
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Mastery of Visconti,
This review is from: La Terra Trema [1948] [DVD] (DVD)
For many of us, Luchino Visconti is the lush, almost operatic director of masterpieces like "Death in Venice" and "The Leopard". Yet, at the beginning of his career, he was an important figure in the Italian neo-realist movement. "La Terra Trema" is one of the best examples of this school. In a fascinating book about Italian cinema, the academic Stefania Parigi has written an insightful essay about the film's use of language. Visconti, with the aid of a young Franco Zeffirelli, mixed voice-over narration in Italian with the dialogue of his nonprofessional cast, who spoke in Sicilian dialect. There was a good reason for this; as the film's opening caption says, "Italian is not the language of the poor" (I quote, or misquote, this from memory). The result is a powerful and bleak film, which manages not to be depressing, perhaps because its political commitment and its admiration of its subjects is so intense and alive. In political terms, Visconti was something of a paradox; he was a fervent Marxist was also a very rich aristocrat. Perhaps this tension gives an added energy to "La Terra Trema". Whatever the case, it is a remarkable piece of work, a poem to the hardship of life and to human endurance.
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