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La Terra Trema Details

1948

70
from 808 members

Starring	Luchino Visconti
Director	Luchino Visconti
Genres	Drama, World Cinema

La Terra Trema

Luchino Visconti's pseudo-documentary look at the exploitation of Sicilian fishermen was based on Giovanni Verga's 1881 novel I Malavoglia. The townspeople of Aci Trezza, Sicily, portrayed themselves, speaking in their native dialects and fretting about economic hardship for over 160 minutes of screen time. As nobly neorealist as such an endeavor must have seemed, it died at the box office upon initial release, leading Visconti to add narration in standard Italian. The truth is that the film wasn't all that realistic to begin with, as Visconti's unshakable attachment to cinematic artifice led him to pretty up the dreary goings-on with camera virtuosity that seems completely misplaced given the events onscreen. More grueling than illuminating, this film was the first of a proposed trilogy (the remaining films were to deal with Sicilian peasants and miners) that Visconti mercifully never got around to making.~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Starring	Luchino Visconti
Director	Luchino Visconti
Run time	DVD: 2 hrs 33 mins
Certificate
Genres	Drama, World Cinema
Language	DVD: Italian
Subtitles	DVD: English
Released	Production year: 1948 To Rent: DVD: 05 Jul 2010

Critic's review of La Terra Trema
View all critics' reviews (2)
- Seriously intended, carefully composed semi-documentary stressing the economic problems of the simple life. A commercial disaster: even the Italians couldn't understand the accents of the local actors.
- 32376
- - Halliwell's Film Guide
  - 02 Mar 2006 at 15:42
Most helpful member's review of La Terra Trema
View all members' reviews (16)
- - 14
  - 0
  The poor fisher folk of Aci Trezza
  
  This is one of the best films on a Marxist theme. It takes the single linear story of a Scicilian fisher family and their attempts to break the stranglehold of ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 105452
- [Highly rated reviewer]
  - Zamy
  - 552 reviews
  - London
  - 20 May 2005 at 11:04
Most recent members' reviews of La Terra Trema
View all members' reviews (16)
- - 0
  - 0
  Dull and patronising
  
  I wanted to see this film because I've been reading Jean Renoir's memoirs in which he blasts this and other neo-realist films for their inability to be ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 929875
- - zorilla
  - 140 reviews
  - Kew, Richmond
  - 08 Oct 2010 at 11:08
- - 0
  - 0
  The Mastery of Visconti
  
  For many of us, Luchino Visconti is the lush, almost operatic director of masterpieces like 'Death in Venice' and 'The Leopard'. Yet, at the ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 918999
- - LeedsLecturer
  - 3 reviews
  - Leeds
  - 29 Aug 2010 at 15:02
- - 0
  - 0
  Felt like a documentary
  
  This film had a very clunky old fashioned feel to it, and felt like a morality play about the oppressed working classes as it follows the trials and ... read more »
  
  Report this review
- 896840
- - Ferry41
  - 190 reviews
  - Oxford
  - 07 Jun 2010 at 17:25
View all members' reviews (16)
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- La Terra Trema
  
  Luchino Visconti's pseudo-documentary look at the exploitation of Sicilian fishermen was based on Giovanni Verga's 1881 novel I Malavoglia. The townspeople of Aci Trezza, Sicily, portrayed themselves, speaking in their native dialects and fretting about economic hardship for over 160 minutes of ...