L'inferno (1911)

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:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The penultimate scene: as Virgil leads Dante through the subterranean passage, he suffers an uncharacteristic moment of clumsiness (he trips, stumbles, and has to pull his own toga out from under his foot).

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hell-A-Vision (1936)

Surreal

L'Inferno (1911)

*** (out of 4)

Historically important film as it stands as the first feature from Italy as well as the first film to show full frontal nudity. Dante travels to Hell where he gets to see what really goes on down there. The special effects and sets in this thing are downright beautiful and quite a sight to behold, which is the real reason to check this thing out. The pits of Hell look incredibly good and compared to what was being done in America at the time there's no question why this thing would go over well in this country. The only downside to the actual film is that it's visually rather bland. What Griffith was doing in America through editing would have certainly improved this film. Another gripe is that the DVD producer's added an electronic music score, which also features lyrics from some woman singer, which sound horrid and really doesn't add anything to the film. After the first few minutes I turned the soundtrack off and watched the film without any music. Hopefully a different version, with a new score, will be released someday.