L'inferno (1911)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

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:

According to "The People's Almanac Guide to the 20th Century", this is the very first movie to ever show male front nudity, well over half a century before it turned up again in Women in Love (1969).

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)

Shot on location.

Well well well... This is a spectacle worth seeing. Filmed in 1910 and released early in 1911, it must have had a terrific impact on the viewer. It's full of special effects, flashbacks, monsters, appearances and disappearances, giants, dragons, demons and other hellish apparitions. There's a lot of nudity and agony, smoke and mud. But make no mistake: it's all according to 1911 standards. There still are no close-ups, no proper editing, and no acting to speak of aside from gestures as broad as one's hands are capable of doing. There's also no real story: it's a series of tableaux depicting Dante and Virgil moving through the different circles of Hell. It's all shot in broad daylight of course, in some weird looking mountains that can look quite majestic, but can also be no better than an disused Italian quarry. It's not boring, but it's very unclear what the viewer is supposed to think. There are lengthy title cards in very weird English, summarizing the action to come. Some of the trick photography is among the best that was available at that time (and men like Melies did a fantastic job even ten years before the release of this film); some is 'rags on a stick'-variety. Had there been at least a few close-ups, or anything to make it look more cinematic, I would have been much happier. The picture quality is so-so, it's obviously edited from two or three different prints that can vary quite a lot. It also could have been made more interesting using colour tinting for different hellish locations, such as red for fire and brimstone and blue for the ice lake. The music by Tangerine Dream became annoying very quickly. As long as it is ambiance background, it's OK, but as soon as the lady vocalist bursts into weird pseudo-Dantean songs, it's pure Hell indeed. I was seriously considering turning the sound down, but then I sort of grew used to it. This film might prove to be a bit heavy for those who are not prepared to sit through 1,5 hours of agonizing and slow moving journey that doesn't seem to lead nowhere. Then again, the selection of pre-WW I full length films released on DVD isn't wide enough to dismiss this one. But you need to know your Dante before you delve into this one, otherwise it's a total mishmash. A good friend and a bottle of strong booze would come handy as well.