HIST 221: Medieval Intellectual History: Films & Websites

The first Italian feature film ever made, L'Inferno was also the first international blockbuster, based loosely on Dante's journey through hell as influenced by the illustrative style of Gustave Doré. (Silent Film)

A morality melodrama which puts a minister's reputation in question, bringing him to the brink of Heaven and Hell.

A neurotic young woman who is married to an engineer in the industrial wasteland of northern Italy, searches in vain to find meaning in her life.

Hand-painted film that is inspired by the Divine Comedy

Four years after Chris and Annie Nielsen lose their children in a traffic accident, Chris himself is killed and finds himself reunited with his children in a beautiful and astonishing afterlife, but Annie commits suicide in despair and is banished to a very different realm.

The film is structured into three Dantean Kingdoms: Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. The journey begins in Hell (represented by modern war) and then moves to Purgatory (set in Sarajevo). Finally, Paradise is conceived as a small beach guarded by Marines from the United States.

Dante is a hard-living hoodie-clad slacker who will take you on a gritty tour of Hell that bears a disturbing resemblance to our own world. In an attempt to save his lost soul, Dante is led through the seven rings of Hell.

Radical, new visual techniques are used to bring the first eight cantos of Dante's Inferno to the screen. The film illustrates and complements Dante's text, re-creating a 600 year-old work as a late twentieth century post-modern masterpiece. Eminent scholars in visual sidebars interpret Dante's metaphors and symbolism.

The first Italian feature film ever made, L'Inferno was also the first international blockbuster, based loosely on Dante's journey through hell as influenced by the illustrative style of Gustave Doré. Music by Tangerine Dream.

A ruthless carnival barker, blinded by ambition, keeps a fair open - despite warnings from an inspector that the fair is unsafe - leading to a fatal disaster. Starring Spencer Tracy.

A morality melodrama which puts a minister's reputation in question, bringing him to the brink of Heaven and Hell. (See minute 51 for visions of Dante's Inferno)

Hand-painted film that is inspired by The Divine Comedy.