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
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