Following the Footsteps of the Sommo Poeta!

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE SOMMO POETA!

”FROM A SILENT CLASSIC TO EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS, THERE HAVE BEEN INTERESTING EFFORTS TO CAPTURE THE DIVINE COMEDY ON FILM”

You may never have read a single line of The Divine Comedy, the three-part epic poem published in 1320 by Dante Alighieri, but 700 years later its infl uence is felt everywhere and has produced a plethora of literary work, and inspired painters and sculptors and musicians for centuries. Although Dante’s infl uence in the literary and visual arts sphere is huge, equally signifi cant is his determining role in the evolution of the visual media unique to our times, namely, cinema. From the silent era, with the 1911 movie L’Inferno directed by Bertolini, de Liguoro and Padovan, through to the era of sound and to fi lm of the present day, as well as its impact on specifi c directors and actors in international cinema, we see the extent and staying power in the modern world of Dante’s ern world of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Divine Comedy. There are surprisingly There are surprisingly only a handful of actual only a handful of actual adaptations of the Divine adaptations of the Divine Comedy with respect to Comedy with respect to the time period it was the time period it was written in. The monwritten in. The monumental 1911 classic, umental 1911 classic, L’Inferno, stands as the L’Inferno, stands as the fi rst. It also happens to fi rst. It also happens to be the fi rst Italian feabe the fi rst Italian feature fi lm ever made. The ture fi lm ever made. The footage is spectacular, and footage is spectacular, and the primitive special effects the primitive special effects still evoke the same shock still evoke the same shock and emotion they must and emotion they must have done upon its Premiere. Most recently a unique cinematic journey was produced by heavy metal pioneer, and award winning producer responsible for the progressive rock band Goblin and the soundtrack to Dario Argento’s Suspiria, Maurizio Guarini, who created a compelling new soundtrack to this classic silent fi lm of Dante’s Inferno. In 2017, Toronto’s very own director of the Italian Institute of Culture had the idea and asked Guarini to do a live soundtrack on the occasion of the International Seminar on Critical Approaches to Dante organized by the University of Toronto. The musician saw this incredible fi lm from 1911 and took up the challenge. His fi rst performance took place at Innis Town Hall (University of Toronto), and received a great audience response. Throughout the years most fi lms, rather than adapt, only reference Alighieri’s work or re-imagine it in a contemporary setting. DeSica, Rossellini, and Fellini have all had a say. In Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, Marcello Mastroianni is a celebrity journalist navigating Rome’s midnight bacchanalias and orgies (with the original Paparazzo constantly in tow) in search of life’s meaning. He personifi es a sort of hybrid essence of Dante and Virgil leading us through each of his encounters through the absurdities of a modern hell. Unlike a true adaptation, modern and contemporary fi lms, like La Dolce Vita, feature The Divine Comedy as a metaphor of man’s descent into his own private Hell, with or without Divine attainment. Two fi lms from the same period, the 1975 Pasolini work Salò o Le 120 giornate di Sodoma, and Coppola’s masterpiece Apocalypse Now (1979), borrow intensely in spirit and in kind from the epic poem. Pasolini deals in extremes. His brush strokes are repulsive as he narrates this parable about the rise of Fas-

‘Liar Liar’ (1997)

cism in Italy, and more. The 120 Days of Sodom draws clearly from Dante’s Inferno as levels of hell are infl icted on 18 youths, forced into a whole variety of unspeakable acts much like the sinners in the 9 circles.

‘From Hell’ (2001) In the fi lm Apocalypse Now, Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography is in itself very Dantesque. The smoldering thick air enveloping most of the scenes is reminiscent of Dante’s Hell, in a story that describes the odyssey of Willard and which is based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Willard is on a mission to fi nd Kurtz, and goes on an emotional, philosophical and theological journey, much the same as Dante did. Kurtz is the face of war; Willard (Dante) passes through circles or stages and when he fi nds Kurtz he fi nally understands him and war, as Dante understands evil. Many are the fi lms that come later and arrive at the present day, that have borrowed or been infl uenced by the Divine Comedy. Most noteworthy are: Johnny Depp’s From Hell, in which reference is made with the placement of coins on the eyes of corpses to ensure that payment is made for the ferryman, Caronte. The comedy Liar Liar, starring Jim Carrey, also contains one abstruse Dantean reference, a kind of in-joke which only someone who has studied Dante would get. Se7en (1995) stars Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as two detectives who investigate a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins; Hannibal (2001) features quotes from Dante’s Divine Comedy, while Ron Howard’s 2016 mystery thriller Inferno is steeped in Dantean allusions; and fi nally even the animated Coco by Lee Kunrich (2017), a Pixar fi lm set

‘Hannibal’ (2001)

‘Inferno’ (2016)

in Mexico tells of a journey into the kingdom of the dead made by little Miguel and his dog named Dante and the friendly Hector - a sort of Virgil. The theme of Retribution and Redemption has always captivated man, especially the creative mind. Dante Alighieri immortalized this concept in his masterful opus, The Divine Comedy, and fi lmmakers since the dawn of cinema have followed his lead and taken inspiration in bringing to the screen man’s quest to know the afterlife.

— Article by, Antonia Serrao Soppelsa