Too much of the off-camera narration as if we were watching a puppet show. There are better examples in the neorealist field because structurally Visconti makes it half fictional story and half documentary. Flaherty did a much better, more eloquent job on a similar (desperately poor fishermen folk) theme without any words used in MAN OF ARAN. The only thing I really liked about this film is the Sicilian dialect which does not contain any decipherable Italian words. Like Central and Southern Spain the Arabic influence here was very powerful and the insular culture fought a hard battle to keep its own identity (not Italian and not Arabic). Not a very great film from a director who is very highly regarded but for me is not in the league with the best of Italian filmmakers.
Review of La Terra Trema
