L'Inferno

L'Inferno is a 1911 Italian silent film, loosely adapted from Inferno, the first canticle of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. L'Inferno took over three years to make, and was the first full-length Italian feature film.

L'Inferno was first screened in Naples in the Teatro Mercadante on March 10, 1911. An international success, it took in more than $2 million in the United States, where its length gave theater owners an excuse for raising ticket prices.

Plot
The film consists of 54 scenes. It faithfully narrates the first canticle of the Divine Comedy, with a series of animated paintings inspired by Gustave Doré's illustrations. In the dark forest Dante meets Virgil and with him begins the journey between the circles and the Malebolge, where he meets all the famous characters of the poem: Minosse, Paolo and Francesca, Farinata degli Uberti, Pier della Vigna, etc. In Caina they listen to the story of Count Ugolino and then they see Lucifer with three heads, who tears a man who struggles (special effect obtained with the overlay), before being able "to see the stars again".

Each scene uses special effects in a realistic function: the lustful dragged by the storm (overlay), the torn chest of Muhammad, the detached head of Bertrand de Born (multiple exposure), the transformation of thieves into snakes (replacement by assembly). Lucifer appears enormous thanks to the separate impression of the film and in a second close-up shot, like an intuitive foreground, shows a man moving his legs in his mouth, again thanks to the double exposure.

Cast

 * Salvatore Papa as Dante Alighieri
 * Arturo Pirovano as Virgilio
 * Giuseppe de Liguoro as Farinata degli Uberti
 * Pier Delle Vigne as Il conte Ugolino
 * Augusto Milla as Lucifer
 * Attilio Motta
 * Emilise Beretta