La Terra Trema (1948)

In 1947, Luchino Visconti went to Sicily to make a short documentary. However, after staying there for several months, the project turned into something much bigger. La Terra Trema (=The Earth Trembles) was to consists of 3 episodes: about the fishermen, the peasants, and the sulphur-mine workers. Only the episode about the fishermen was finished (thus the subtitle: Episodio del mare), probably because of the financial trouble. As the project was going, Visconti had run out of the initial budget and continued with his own money.

Starring by the real Sicilian fishermen, this movie focused on the Valestro family in the Aci Trezza village. The fishermen work hard, but the money they bring home is hardly enough. Last night's work is for today's food, and tonight's is for tomorrow's. The wholesalers force them to sell their fish cheap. A young man, Ntoni Valestro, believes that they can get out of this poor life. "He has serviced military in the mainland and learnt about injustice," says his brother Cola, when the old generation wonders why the young just can't accept the life as it is: "The poor is always poor". Ntoni mortgages the family house, buys the boat, and plan to sell the fish to Catania directly. It sounds easy, but in one stormy night, the boat is destroyed. With the loss of the boat, the Valestro family lost every thing and in hunger they must place themselves back into the merciful hand of the wholesalers.

I somehow scratched my head when the Valestros think they are rich after the mortgage of the house. The heap of cash has made them forget that they have to pay the bank back. People around them also think the same. Nicola, the house-builder, knows that he is now too poor to marry Ntoni's sister Mara whom he loves.

After the loss of the boat, the Valestros are out of job. It seems never-ending troubles come to them then. None will hire Ntoni (probably afraid of the wholesalers), his girlfriend is gone, Cola runs away (probably to America), the grandfather falls ill, her sister Lucia becomes an officer's mistress, Mara has lost her better opportunity to marry, and the family house is confiscated. The movie ends with sort-of happy ending, as Ntoni has to swallow his pride and asks the wholesalers to hire him again.

The language used in this movie is the Sicilian dialect, which underlines the sense of poverty.