L’INFERNO (1911) – This 71-minute movie was an adaptation of Dante’s epic poem Inferno, one-third of his Divine Comedy along with Purgatorio and Paradiso. It was also Italy’s first feature-length film, beating Cabiria to theaters by three years.
Three directors collaborated on this production – Francesco Bertolini, Giuseppe de Liguoro and Adolfo Padovan. Obviously, L’Inferno is a very condensed version of Dante’s work but the special effects are impressive for the time period.
Even if I wasn’t a silent film geek aspects of this movie would have stood out to me. First, it was made in Italy toward the end of the Belle Epoch, lending it a certain poignance as the global conflict was approaching an oblivious world.
Second, L’Inferno has a certain grandeur from being filmed in Italy itself, the home of Dante Alighieri and his guide through Hell, Virgil. And third, nearly all of the footage set in the realm of the damned was filmed amid extinct and semi-extinct volcanoes in Italy, adding immeasurably to the infernal atmosphere. Continue reading
From the corporate fascist kleptocracy run by career criminal Joe Biden comes another current events roundup by 
It’s been a while, so here’s Balladeer’s Blog’s latest installment of Transgress with Me. As usual, it’s only for the courageous and mixes old with new. As I’ve often mentioned in the past, I used to be a Democrat before their increasing intolerance and fascism drove me to leave the party and become an Independent Voter.
*** Authoritarian Democrats are only content in environments where they have a captive audience, like in schools or wherever they can use the full force of the government or other higher “authorities” to impose silence on those who disagree with them.
LE DUEL D’HAMLET (1900) – In this roughly 2-minute short, the 56-year-old Bernhardt gave cinema a gender-flipped Hamlet as she fenced with Pierre Magnier as Laertes in the climactic duel. 
TOSCA (1908, 1912) – Bernhardt portrayed Floria Tosca in this adaptation of the Puccini opera. (Yes, it’s a silent movie version of an opera.) The entire story was condensed into just 40 minutes and Sarah was so appalled with the production that she insisted that it not be released and, in fact, wanted it destroyed! 
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