This film, as the title plainly indicate, is a dramatization of Dante's Inferno which comprises a third of his Divine Comedy. As is well-known to all, the Inferno relates Dante's journey through Hell being guided by the Roman poet, Virgil. Dante is shown the nine circles of hell where sinners are punished with afflictions appropriate to their sins. The climax of the work is seeing Lucifer himself at the very center of hell.
The influence of this work in Western art and literature is staggering and obvious. Much of what Christians believe to be typical of Hell is derived not from the bible but from Dante. Artists and illustrators from the late Middle Ages through the 19th century have depicted scenes from Dante's work. Indeed, this movie uses Gustave Dore's illustrations of the Inferno as the basis of the cinematography.
As for the film itself, its technical crudity and the highly uneven quality of the film stock, really make it mainly of archival value. Moreover, the acting is of the broad gesturing variety associated with early silent movies.
Still, despite these limitations, the care and effort that went into this film is obvious. The special effects are not half-bad and the Dore illustrations are brought to life reasonably well. To a film audience in 1911, this was plainly seen as a momentous event. In its runs in Europe and America both before and after World War I, the film was extremely successful and grossed for the time enormous box office.
Indeed, in the liner notes to the DVD edition of this movie, an advertisement by a British distributor from 1911 encouraged theaters to rent this film by pointing out how profitable it had been to other exhibitors. In this ad, one can see how the feature film, a film longer than 60 minutes, became established as the basic mode in which film would be presented in the future. From the 1890s until 1911, the short subject was the only medium in which film was shown. With the success of this film and other Italian feature films which followed like The Last Days of Pompeii and Cabiria, film makers like D.W. Griffith were inspired to direct long, involved films like Birth of a Nation and Intolerance.
Unlike most other commentators, I wasn't too put off by the Tangerine Dream soundtrack. I agree it wasn't great but it wasn't the worst I've heard.
The influence of this work in Western art and literature is staggering and obvious. Much of what Christians believe to be typical of Hell is derived not from the bible but from Dante. Artists and illustrators from the late Middle Ages through the 19th century have depicted scenes from Dante's work. Indeed, this movie uses Gustave Dore's illustrations of the Inferno as the basis of the cinematography.
As for the film itself, its technical crudity and the highly uneven quality of the film stock, really make it mainly of archival value. Moreover, the acting is of the broad gesturing variety associated with early silent movies.
Still, despite these limitations, the care and effort that went into this film is obvious. The special effects are not half-bad and the Dore illustrations are brought to life reasonably well. To a film audience in 1911, this was plainly seen as a momentous event. In its runs in Europe and America both before and after World War I, the film was extremely successful and grossed for the time enormous box office.
Indeed, in the liner notes to the DVD edition of this movie, an advertisement by a British distributor from 1911 encouraged theaters to rent this film by pointing out how profitable it had been to other exhibitors. In this ad, one can see how the feature film, a film longer than 60 minutes, became established as the basic mode in which film would be presented in the future. From the 1890s until 1911, the short subject was the only medium in which film was shown. With the success of this film and other Italian feature films which followed like The Last Days of Pompeii and Cabiria, film makers like D.W. Griffith were inspired to direct long, involved films like Birth of a Nation and Intolerance.
Unlike most other commentators, I wasn't too put off by the Tangerine Dream soundtrack. I agree it wasn't great but it wasn't the worst I've heard.