L'inferno (1911)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Directors:

Francesco Bertolini
Adolfo Padovan

Writer:

Dante Alighieri (poem)

Release Date:

July 1911 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

Loosely adapted from Dante's Divine Comedy and inspired by the illustrations of Gustav Doré the original silent film has been restored and has a new score by Tangerine Dream. |

Plot Keywords:

Male Frontal Nudity | Spirituality | Purgatory | Punishment | Female Frontal Nudity

Cast

Salvatore Papa	...	Dante Alighieri
Arturo Pirovano	...	Virgilio
Giuseppe de Liguoro	...	Farinata degli Uberti, Pier delle Vigne, il conte Ugolino
Augusto Milla	...	Lucifer
Attilio Motta
Emilise Beretta

Also Known As:

Dante's Inferno (USA)
L'inferno (Italy) (short title)

Runtime:

Italy:68 min | UK:71 min

Country:

Italy | UK

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Milano Film

Trivia:

This is the first feature film to be shown in it's entirety, in one screening, in the USA. Prior to this it was thought audiences wouldn't be prepared to sit for over an hour to watch a feature - films such as Les misérables (1909) and The Life of Moses (1909) were shown in episodic parts over the course of a month or two.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Francesca and Paolo fly down to speak to Dante in the Circle of Lust, the Kirby wires supporting them are visible.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hell-A-Vision (1936)

Still burning bright..

A strange beast this one; apparently the first ever Italian feature film, based on Dante (with some unacknowledged visual indebtedness to Gustav Dore) L'inferno has lately resurfaced on DVD complete with a new soundtrack, and by Tangerine Dream no less. A great film, full of early fantastical touches, L'inferno still makes for reasonably enthralling viewing, especially as the shooting style of the time - slow moving tableaux, with no close ups - is eminently suited to Dante's epic narrative based around a grand tour of horror. Some of the many special effects are reminiscent of Melies' imagination (if far less studio bound than the work of the French master), as Dante and his guide, the poet Virgil, progress through the various circles of Hell, viewing increasingly horrendous torments on display. Silent film buffs will find a chance to acquire this version, a composite, taken from a couple of archives hard to miss. But the downside is the condition of the print: understandably a bit ragged given its age, surely it could still have been digitally restored and cleaned up more than this? The film is also presented conservatively in black and white, where most silent films, especially those of this importance, would have had a degree of tinting at the time, a process which would have considerably enhanced this work. There is also the music, which is sometimes a distraction, sometimes just a pleasant undercurrent, but which never rises to the required heights of inspiration. One is reminded of the old Giorgio Moroeder version of Lang's Metropolis which, with all faults, at least offered a viable and somewhat invigorated version of a great classic. By comparison the less thoughtfully done L'inferno to some extent represents a lost opportunity, but one still worth seeing, as it is probably the only version that will be available for some time. And one can always turn the sound down.