- Please Note This Paper is Partially in Italian and Primarily in English - Luchino Visconti’s La Terra Trema is thought of by many as the purest example of Italian neorealism; Personally, I have no doubt that it deserves this recognition. On a recent trip to my local Museum (Fine Arts) to see La Terra Trema during the “Days of Glory” Italian Film Festival, I noticed many people in the movie theater after the one and a half hour mark of the film budging around in their seats, as if the vivid harshness of the film had a physical effect on them as each agonizingly brutal scene passed. One can easily make a clear comparison of not only Giovanni Verga’s I Malavoglia which La Terra Trema was based on, but also Verga’s short stories: Rosso Malpelo and Nedda, or the harsh but poetic account of Acitrezza, Sicilia in Fantasticheria. Visconti undoubtedly created a masterpiece in La Terra Trema by creating the essence and feel of Giovanni Verga’s Verismo short stories and novels. La Terra Trema (based on Giovanni Verga’s I Malavoglia) tells the story of poor Sicilian fishermen in AciTrezza who are continually exploited by the fish wholesalers. ‘Ntoni, of the Valastro family, decides that enough is enough and plans to overthrow the malicious wholesalers by mortgaging his house to afford a boat of their own, to be their own bosses. Their initial success is soon destroyed by an unlucky storm that destroys their boat. Without having the money to pay off their debts, they are forced into extreme poverty and eventually evicted out of their house by the government. Ultimately, ‘Ntoni is forced to swallow his pride and once again accept a position from the wholesalers on one of their boats. Watching La Terra Trema is literally like watching a Giovanni Verga story come to life, its very essence is portrayed perfectly on the big screen, in black and white. In Verga’s Fantasticheria (1880), the French lady exclaims “Non capisco come si possa vivere qui tutta la vita”. She symbolizes the outsider who’s looking in, and this is brought home by her being not only not Sicilian, but not even from Italy. The people of AciTrezza are compared to a “esercito di formiche” with them writhing in pain, and “Di tanto in tanto il tifo, il colèra, la malannata, la burrasca, vengono a dare una buona spazzata in quel brulicame, che davvero si crederebbe non dovesse desiderar di meglio che esser spazzato, e scomparire; eppure ripullula sempre nello stesso luogo; non so dirvi come, né perché” (Fantasticheria, Giovanni Verga, 1880). Watching the small impoverished town of Acitrezza in La Terra Trema, one can understand that statement. Like Pier Paolo Pasolini often made pimps, prostitutes, accattoni and malviventi the “stars” in his movies and books (Ragazzi di Vita, Accattone, Mamma Roma), Giovanni Verga also decided to put his focus on a group of people who certainly weren’t portrayed in literature often, the real people of Sicily. Luchino Visconti kept true to the spirit of Verga’s stories by using “Le case, le strade, le barche, il mare, sono quelli di Acitrezza. Tutti gli attori del film sono stati scelti tra gli abitanti del paese: pescatori, ragazze, braccianti, muratori, grossisti di pesce” (La Terra Trema, Luchino Visconti, 1948). In Fantasticheria, Verga gives a vivid account of the poor people of Acitrezza, but often emphasized the beauty in their simplicity; a hardened tough sailor who was intimidated by the French lady’s fancy shoe-work. In La Terra Trema, Visconti contrasts the harsh images and themes with beautiful poetic cinematography, stunning compositions, long static shots and vivid close-ups. The director and author both saw the beauty in something seemingly so harsh and unattractive because “La vita è ricca, come vedete, nella sua inesauribile varietà” (Fantasticheria) Watching the film, one gets the sense that these are the actual people that Giovanni Verga would have written about had he lived in 1940’s Acitrezza. Visconti decided to let them talk in their “dialetto semibarbaro” (Fantasticheria, Giovanni Verga, 1880) because “Essi non conoscono lingua diversa dal siciliano per esprimere ribellioni, dolori, speranze. La lingua italiana non è in Sicilia la lingua dei poveri”, similar to how Giovanni Verga brilliantly used Sicilian syntax and sayings but within standard Italian. Seeing the characters in La Terra Trema speak in Sicilian “Stretto” brings an extra level of realism as seen in Verga’s stories, that would have been greatly diminished had it been filmed in standard Italian. It’s clear that Visconti and Verga realized how important language and vernacular really was when trying to convey Sicilian life. None of the hardships that are portrayed in Verga’s stories are spared in La Terra Trema. Nedda (Bozzetto Siciliano), one of Giovanni Verga’s first short stories marks his stylistic move from popular writing to the gritty Verismo style. The main character Nedda is a poor olive picker who undergoes a series of tragic misfortunes and eventually sees the death of her just born child literally die in her arms. The similarities between the continual hardships of Nedda and ‘Ntoni (and his family) in La Terra Trema are extremely clear. They are both tragic characters bound to their destiny and lot in life. Giovanni Verga writes about Nedda: “Era una ragazza bruna, vestita miseramente, dall'attitudine timida e ruvida che danno la miseria e l'isolamento. Forse sarebbe stata bella, se gli stenti e le fatiche non avessero alterato profondamente non solo le sembianze gentili della donna”. This was another similarity that Luchino Visconti might not have consciously chosen, but ‘Ntoni played by Antonio Arcidiacono is a good looking man that could have easily been a lead character in other movies, but was clearly physically worn down by all the hardships and physical labor. Luchino Visconti says in the narration of La Terra Trema, that the work of the exploited poor Sicilian fishermen is a “schiavitù senza scampo”.Visconti is not only referencing the physical work that the fishermen endure day in and day out for pitiful pay, but also the overall theme of the movie which is made clear in the powerful ending, where ‘Ntoni is forced, tail in between his legs to get another low paying miserable job with the “blood-sucking” fish wholesalers. This “schiavitù senza scampo” can also sum up the lives of many of the protagonists of Giovanni Verga, an example being in Rosso Malpelo. The main character (Rosso Malpelo, a miner in the caves under Mount Etna) is doomed to his miserable fate and eventual death and there is no “scampo”, just like for the fishermen. Rosso Malpelo’s father was killed in a tragic accident in the same mines under Etna just as‘Ntoni’s father died in the same sea (Mar Ionio), neither of them tried to change their fate like ‘Ntoni did, but they were still doomed to a miserable outcome, as if the fate of ‘Ntoni was as sure of a thing as death was: “Semmai volesse “staccarsi dai suoi per vaghezza dell’ignoto, o per brama di meglio, o per curiosità di conoscere il mondo; il mondo, da pesce vorace ch’egli è, se lo ingoiò” (Fantasticheria, 1880). My professor Alessandro Carrera informed me about a very important difference between the works of Verga and Visconti, and that is the positive and optimistic message that Visconti leaves us with which comes into sharp contrast to Verga's pessimism. 'Ntoni says at the end of the film "We have to learn how to care for each other and unite for the common good, only then can we go ahead." - Jesse Sifuentes, October 2011
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