Pretty Good

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I discovered the classic piece thanks to Twin Peaks: a mystery entrance in dark woods, saving love in hell and meeting dead people well alive... Then Dan Brown told his version and it was interesting and the adaptation of his novel was visually powerful. So here one century before, i didn't expected much but after a few minutes, i felt very bored: the captions failed to clearly present the 9 circles and visually they look finally a bit all the same: a river or a beach with naked people agonizing... On the screen, Virgil knows all and is so powerful that we can wonder why he needed Dante anyway.. and by the way, her lover Beatrice appears at the beginning and never happens again as Dante gets out from hell. There is some good costumes and special effects and that was like watching a Star Trek Classic but at the end, we are faraway of the power of words and art from Gustave Doré that inspired the movie.

The movie can be considered a legendary and unique. The time of creation and a great book, which unfolds the storyline make this picture a must see for movie lovers. I especially want to note the successful attempt of the authors to follow the show plots art of Gustave Doré, which he held in his engravings, illustrating the "Divine Comedy". Overall, without compromise, the film can be attributed to the Golden Fund of world cinematography.

The sets are crude and the acting is over the top by almost any modern standard -- but, well, it's from 1911. This remains a remarkable film, particularly given its time.It helps to have read Dante's "L'Inferno" before seeing it. Still, these images (derived from Gustav Dore's illustrations) remain powerful; any student of film should be acquainted with this one. There's plenty of nudity, true, but none of it is remotely titillating.But what's up with the garbage from Tangerine Dream (whoever or whatever that is) and the horrible, anachronistic soundtrack that's been plastered onto the movie as the only audio alternative? Turn down the sound: your experience will only be negatively influenced if you listen to it. Try some Liszt or Berlioz instead.

A strange beast this one; apparently the first ever Italian feature film, based on Dante (with some unacknowledged visual indebtedness to Gustav Dore) L'inferno has lately resurfaced on DVD complete with a new soundtrack, and by Tangerine Dream no less. A great film, full of early fantastical touches, L'inferno still makes for reasonably enthralling viewing, especially as the shooting style of the time - slow moving tableaux, with no close ups - is eminently suited to Dante's epic narrative based around a grand tour of horror. Some of the many special effects are reminiscent of Melies' imagination (if far less studio bound than the work of the French master), as Dante and his guide, the poet Virgil, progress through the various circles of Hell, viewing increasingly horrendous torments on display. Silent film buffs will find a chance to acquire this version, a composite, taken from a couple of archives hard to miss. But the downside is the condition of the print: understandably a bit ragged given its age, surely it could still have been digitally restored and cleaned up more than this? The film is also presented conservatively in black and white, where most silent films, especially those of this importance, would have had a degree of tinting at the time, a process which would have considerably enhanced this work. There is also the music, which is sometimes a distraction, sometimes just a pleasant undercurrent, but which never rises to the required heights of inspiration. One is reminded of the old Giorgio Moroeder version of Lang's Metropolis which, with all faults, at least offered a viable and somewhat invigorated version of a great classic. By comparison the less thoughtfully done L'inferno to some extent represents a lost opportunity, but one still worth seeing, as it is probably the only version that will be available for some time. And one can always turn the sound down.