A Stroll by the Sea

A fish lies on the plate of a huge metal scale. The camera pans upwards and frames a boy holding the scale while a fish wholesaler is rhythmically uttering the price he is willing to pay. They are standing on a dock, other fishermen surrounding them. Behind this human circle, a kid pops up. He is looking for someone. The camera follows the boy to the right and then to the left, trying to track him down among a crowd made up of buyers, sellers, and bystanders as he carries on his pursuit. A cross-eyed wholesaler argues with a fisherman, raises his arm, holding a huge octopus, and tosses it to the ground. The camera pulls away toward the open sea and frames the whole community, gathered on the dock for the fish market, and eventually includes the boats beyond the farther side of the dock and even the poor houses in the background.

This long tracking shot is one of the early sequences of The Earth Trembles, an undisputed masterpiece of Italian neorealism and one of its most radical achievements. The shooting, which took place entirely on location in a poor village on the eastern shores of Sicily, lasted almost eight months, as if the film's production was the equivalent of an ethnographic expedition. The film's shooting occurred in difficult conditions due to the lack of adequate facilities and finances and a partly inexperienced crew.