La Terra Trema — La Terra Trema (Blu Ray)
La Terra Trema is a late 1940s film set in a Sicilian fishing village. It blends drama with documentary, with many of the cast played by either nonprofessional actors or real villagers. The picture focuses on the Valastro family, who decide to try and break away from greedy wholesalers, who give them little to nothing for their catch. Here from Radiance Films is a new Blu-ray release of the film, taking in a new 2k print, and a few extras.
La Terra Trema (The Earth Will Tremble) is from 1948, and was filmed on location in Aci Trezza, on the coast of Catania, Sicily. It was directed by Milan-born Luchino Visconti. Between the mid-forties and the mid-seventies, he had fifteen features to his name- these went from gritty & gripping noir Obsession (1943), post-war romantic drama Senso (1954), controversial nazi Germany set drama The Damned (1969), and romantic period drama Death In Venice (1971).
La Terra Trema is filmed in black and white, with an epic/ lengthy runtime of two hours and forty minutes. It starts off very documentary-like, with the drama elements slowly taking over the film's focus. With male narration popping up throughout the film's length.
We begin by seeing shots of the harbour and the sea waters just before dawn light, as we see villages singing/ chanting of hope of a good catch, just before the fishmen return from their night's work. As the film unfolds, we see the fishmen arriving back, unloading, then selling their catch to the wholesalers, before fixing/sewing up their nets for the journey out into the sea.
From the outset, we start to focus on the Valastro family, generations of whom have fished the sea. The father of the family died a year or so back at sea, and since then, twentysomething Ntoni (Antonio Arcidiacono) has taken up the mantle of head of the family. He’s become more and more disillusioned with the present fishing system in the village- which means he & his crew take all the risk/ do all the work, then the greedy/ uncaring wholesale swoop in to buy the catching giving them the lowest rate possible- so he decides to see, with the help of his family, if he can set up on his own.
Wrapped around the main story, we have a few side stories- one of Ntoni's sisters is rather besotted with a local moustached builder, the village's predatory/ lazy police officer has his eyes on one of the younger sisters, and Cola (Giuseppe Arcidiacono) , the next in line after Ntoni after is given a tempting offer.
The village and its coast are captured in a very real to dramatic manner, with the shifting weather streams, and the time-worn look of the buildings, the boats, and the faces of some of the older folk.
The acting, as you would imagine with a mix of nonprofessional actors & villages, is somewhat mixed, moving between somewhat clipped & dull repeating lines, to real emotion/ depth. As our lead, the quaffed curly-haired Arcidiacono shows great range, moving all the way from being cocky & proud, to being broken/ tearful/ dejected.
I’d say the runtime did often feel too long, and I’m certainly there could have been a few snippets here & there, bringing it down to nearer the two-hour mark. That said, the blend of documentary and drama is very well realised, and while the runtime did drag in places, ultimately La Terra Trema is a fascinating look at a time and a place, which at points gets quite emotional with its moments of tragedy.
This region B Blu-ray features a 2k scan, which has good depth and clarity to the black and white stock. We have a few extras, though most of these archive side of things.
On the new side, we have an interview with critic Christina Newland regarding the film( 10.17). She talks about why it took some time for Visconti to follow up on his first 1943 film Obsession, with this second film. We find out he was on location for seven months shooting the film, and that it was partly funded by the Communist Party, of which the director was a member. She talks about how the film started off as a series of documentaries looking at different types of manual workers. We find out that the acting was largely improvised, with the locals/non-professional actors often doing scenes for many hours before the camera rolled. She talks about key collaborations that were involved in the film, and touches on the moments of stylised imagery and melodrama in the picture's make-up. All in all, a most worthy/ extra.
Otherwise, we get the following archive interviews- Italian politician and journalist Pietro Ingrao (9.25). Assistant director Francesco Rosi (14.00) and film producer Turi Vasile (3.07). And an art gallery.
La Terra Trema’s blend of drama and documentary feels grittily real, with the whole thing resolving in far from a wholly positive or everything turns out right manner. The new 2k scan looks good, and we get a small but interesting selection of extras.