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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Beauty of Deprivation, August 22, 2002
This review is from: La Terra Trema (The Earth Trembles) (DVD)
I have had something like a thirty year desire to see this, director Luchino Visconti's second film. To my knowledge, it has never enjoyed wide theatrical distribution, which given its content and tone, is hardly surprising. A relentlessly downbeat view of the lives of Sicilian fishermen, it's also a tad on the long side. Still, to have it available on video is a wonderful treat. I can't imagine myself watchiing it frequently, but it has a compositional integrity that more than compensates for the depressing subject matter. Never having seen the film projected, I cannot gauge the effectiveness of the video transfer. My guess is that it is so-so: good enough to give a sense of what the film looks like but not produced with enough care to bring out all the richness of detail and contrast. The opening credits, for example, superimposed over images of dawn in the fishing village, are barely intelligible. With a little more effort, the disc producers could probably have found a way to make the sequence work on video. As it is, we more or less have to imagine what it would look like. "La Terra Trema" is Italian Neorealism at its most epic. Unlike De Sica's "Bicycle Thief," for example, which reveals the tragedy of one man's decline, "Terra" self-consciously uses the Valastro family as an example of a larger phenomenon. Visconti makes no effort to conceal his political prejudices, at one point clearly identifying the corrupt, exploitive wholesalers with the recently deposed Mussolini regime while relentlessly identifying the central characters' problems with social and economic forces. The hopelessness of the situation is relieved only by the internal cohesion of the family which, nonetheless, undergoes severe tests. While we can well imagine the Valastros sinking even lower after the film's ambiguous ending, what is most striking about the film more than fifty years after its release, is its essential *optimism.* The call for a united front to withstand exploitation is good, old-fashioned Marxism at its most bald and unapologetic. The film's unabashed faith in human nature and the possibility of positive change feels not so much naive as nostalgic, the product of a time when it was still possible to believe in broad, systemic change. Wrapped in Visconti's well-known eye for sensuous spectacle, "La Terra Trema" is a good two-and-a-half hour tract just shy of convincing.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Visconti Goes Fishing, September 15, 2003
This review is from: La Terra Trema (The Earth Trembles) (DVD)
I've searched a very long time to see this movie. I've noticed that all of Luchino Visconti's films are extremely hard to obtain. Now that I have finally seen this movie I have seen everything that is available on vhs or dvd by the great Visconti. "La Terra Trema" reminds me heavily of a film Visconti would make later entitled "Rocco & His Brothers". Both films deal with poor Sicilan families trying to make a living. Each family facing the injustice of the upper class vs the lower class. But between the two I must admit I prefer "Rocco..ect". Because it seems to be more about plot. "Rocco" has more of a story to tell. And it's three lead characters make the the movie. "La Terra Trema" is a little short on plot. And the film goes on way too long. The movie is over 2 hours. "La Terra Trema" is about the local fishing community. About the hardships the fisherman face when trying to sell their fish to the merchants. The merchants it is felt are cheating the fisherman out of decent pay. The begining moments of the film work quite well. But the plot cann't sustain the entire lenght of the plot. If this movie had been cut down to at least let's say 1 hour and 45 minutes this could of truly been an unforgettable Visconti masterpiece. As the film is now it's an enjoyable over-long Visconti epic and has choice acting moments,by non actors, & beautiful cinematography. Luchino Visconti is one of my all-time favorite film-makers. He had an unmatched talent for details. He has given us so many entertaining films such as "Ludwig", to me his masterpiece. Also "Rocco & His Brothers", "The Damned", & "The Innocent", his final film. "La Terra Trema" belongs high up on Visconti's list of films. If anything just for the acting. *** 1\2 out of ***** Bottom-line: One of Visconti's best films. A little long but has it's share of strong moments. Worth while for all Visconti fans.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The intimacy of the hopeless!, June 1, 2006
This review is from: La Terra Trema (The Earth Trembles) (DVD)
Luchino Visconti, was a true poet of the image. An admirable creator of atmospheres a fundamental filmmaker who hardly accepts a special category. His magnificent employment of the camera, the mesmerizing scripts signed a successful and prominent trajectory.
La Terra Trema is a powerful portrait of a small village of fishermen, where the hopeless and the oppressive reality surrounds every single frame. At the moment you elaborate a list about primordial films of the Italian Neo Realism, this movie must necessarily included.
You will be a silent witness of a crowd of people who will face all sort of adversities; a bitter metaphor of that isolated micro cosmos of the Post War Italia, with its sorrows, afflictions and little rejoicings.
Expressive, incisive and unforgettable movie. A giant among the classics
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