Dante’s Inferno

Ricochet

TLA Releasing

R1 DVD

The Divine Comedy was written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321 and is still considered today one of the greatest epic poems of all time. While certainly it represents a vision of the world and afterlife as interpreted through the lens of the Medieval Christian Church, many believe it also has a deeper and more allegorical even esoteric interpretation. In scholarly circles it has been debated whether Dante himself was a member of a minority Christ sect, the Gnostics, and that his focus on Beatrice was a glyph for the divine feminine. Accordingly when reading Dante’s Inferno, it is difficult to ascertain whether he actually meant it as an exposition of Medieval Christianity or whether it was actually a subtle means to criticize the power structures around him, or perhaps a mixture of both. While we can never conclusively answer this question, even the most conservative of scholars have noted the mathematical and numerological patterns encoding his work, his denunciations of Italian politics and his deliberate placement of key figures in various realms of hell. It may be noted that many works that have followed Dante have used his literary structure as means of social criticism and this is especially so today.

While rationalism has essentially demolished the Medieval worldview which underlies Dante’s model and the idea of hell is passé, it is a powerful literary framework for the examination of the inequalities of our society and the inherent hypocrisies of modern life. In this startling work Sandow Birk and his team (Paul Zaloom, Sean Meredith, Elyse Pignolet and others) use an incredible array of hand drawn puppets, miniature sets, animation, CGI, real action and even a Victorian theatre to adapt Dante for the post modern world.

This is a startling and original work which is dark, sarcastic and cynical. Dante is a no-hoper and slacker and his experience of this world and the next comes with a sneering tone with makes him both easy to relate to and somewhat unlikable at the same time. The realms of Hell are superbly presented and used not only as social criticism but to offer commentary on everything from current world events to religious hypocrisy and all manner of social inequities. In many ways Dante’s Inferno is turned on its head as the portrayal of the very categories of Hell emphasize the obviously ludicrous nature of the structure while at the same time sustaining the hierarchy of the original work. The section on gays in hell is especially poignant and pokes fun at both the superficiality of some aspects of the gay lifestyle (eternal dancing!) and the Churches prejudice. This balance between political incorrectness and biting social commentary is impressive. Just as Dante places relevant figures in hell, so Birk has done much the same even using institutions such as Fox News to represent the great liar. I especially like that Dick Cheney is so evil he is already dead and in hell even though his shell walks the earth !

This is a brooding, melancholic work, beautifully animated with painstaking detail. It is hard to image just how long such a work took to make. The number of puppets, backgrounds, miniatures, animations and live action sequences are overwhelming, every scene seems to have layers and layers of detail and texture.

Virgil is voiced by Kames Cromwell (of Six Feet Under) who is just perfect for the part and Dermot Mulroney has a suitably devil may care attitude. There is so much to admire in this bizarre journey, from the perversities of Hell’s sexual shenanigans to the nearly comical nature of Satan himself and the Dante and Virgil having to return to the real world via his rear passage. The whole film is irreverent and funny yet at the same time poignant and meaningful. This is a great way to read Dante !

Extras on this DVD are also a real plus, these range from two very comprehensive commentaries covering puppetry, animation and the history of Dante to a Making Of Featurette, Trailers, a photo gallery and DVD-Rom content which includes two mp3 tracks.