La terra trema
| La Terra Trema | |
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Italian theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Luchino Visconti |
| Produced by | Salvo D'Angelo |
| Written by |
Antonio Pietrangeli Luchino Visconti |
| Story by | Giovanni Verga |
| Starring | Antonio Arcidiacono Giuseppe Arcidiacono |
| Narrated by | Luchino Visconti |
| Music by | Willy Ferrero |
| Cinematography | Aldo Graziati |
| Edited by | Mario Serandrei |
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Release date
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Running time
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165 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language |
Sicilian Italian |
La Terra Trema (Italian pronunciation: [la ˈtɛrra ˈtrɛːma]; "The Earth Trembles") is a 1948 Italian dramatic film directed by Luchino Visconti. The movie is loosely adapted from Giovanni Verga's novel I Malavoglia (1881) (The House by the Medlar Tree) for the screen.
The picture features, as non-credited non-professional actors, Antonio Arcidiacono, Giuseppe Arcidiacono, and many others. It is a docufiction played using the Sicilian language.
The story takes place in Aci Trezza (Jaci Trizza), a small fishing village on the east coast of Sicily, Italy.
It tells about the exploitation of working-class fishermen, specifically that of the eldest son of a very traditional village family, the Valastros.
'Ntoni convinces his family to mortgage their house in order to catch and sell fish themselves and make more money than they were already receiving from the wholesalers who had controlled the market with their low prices for a long time.
Everything goes well until a storm ruins the family's boat, leaving them with nothing to keep the new business going. Following this disaster, the family experiences several awful events such as having to leave the house, the death of the grandfather, and 'Ntoni and his brothers being obliged to return to fish for the wholesalers.
The film can be divided into five sections: a prologue, three main phases and an epilogue.
Its first phase tells us about the fishermen's attempt to improve their economic circumstances. In setting the scene, a pig is slaughtered on-camera near the outset. The fishermen demand a better price for their fish, urged by 'Ntoni, the eldest son of Valastros family, to throw the wholesalers' scales into the ocean. The fishermen end up in jail. The wholesalers realize it is more profitable to have 'Ntoni and his friends fishing, so they have the fishermen released. 'Ntoni, who lived on the mainland for a time, had brought some new, open-minded ideas back to Sicily, and he tries to form a cooperative, but no one joins him. In deciding to do it on his own, he convinces his family to mortgage their house to buy a boat and starts his new life. A festive mood is present in this sequence, with all the village joining the Valastro family salting fish in laughter and joy.
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Wikipedia