More Artistic Representations of Dante: the Film Edition

When reading and discussing the Inferno, I mentioned to Bruce I think how with all of the imagery and action it could make a good movie. So I did some quick researching because it seemed likely that someone had adapted the work into film, and I discovered an Italian silent film L'inferno from 1911 that did just that as one of the earliest feature films in history. The adaptation of Dante's work was done on a larger scale than most previous films at the time, featuring hundreds of actors and taking over a year to film. The resulting nearly 70 minute film was very successful, and was one of the earliest films to be this long. The film was also one of the first international hits, as it was an Italian film but enjoyed considerable success in America as well. Also, it grossed over $2 million as it charged more per ticket than previous films, justifying this higher price due to its longer runtime. So if you needed more evidence of Inferno's cultural significance, not only have there been many film adaptations, but one of the first feature length blockbusters in film history from a century ago was an adaptation of the work. Below is a link to a Youtube video of the film, there was recently a version released with a cinematic soundtrack but it is still a silent film so no dialogue, but there are expository inter-titles. It's interesting to just look at random scenes and see how they are depicted.