Dante Alighieri and The Divine Comedy in Popular Culture - Movies and Television

Movies and Television

(Also see Animations, comics and graphic novels)

• The 1911 silent film, L'Inferno, was directed by Giuseppe de Liguoro, starred Salvatore Papa and released on DVD in 2004, with a soundtrack by Tangerine Dream.
• The 1924 silent film, Dante's Inferno, directed by Henry Otto, features the 1911 film, L'Inferno.
• The 1935 motion picture, Dante's Inferno directed by Harry Lachman, written by Philip Klein, and starring Spencer Tracy, is about a fairground attraction based on Inferno. The film features a 10-minute fantasy sequence visualizing Dante's Inferno.
• The Swedish 1972 comedy The Man Who Quit Smoking (Mannen som slutade röka), directed by Tage Danielsson, is partly inspired by The Divine Comedy. For example, the main character is named Dante Alighieri and goes through a personal hell.
• Stan Brakhage's eight-minute hand-painted film, The Dante Quartet (1987), is inspired by the Divine Comedy.
• Peter Greenaway adapted Cantos I to VIII for BBC Two as A TV Dante (1987–1990).
• In the 1990 film Jacob's Ladder, the film's namesake character can be seen reading through a compilation of The Divine Comedy during one scene.
• Krzysztof Kieślowski planned to create a new trilogy inspired by Dante's The Divine Comedy after finishing The Three Colors Trilogy (1993–1994). This intention, however, was abandoned after his death in 1996 until Tom Tykwer decided to shoot the film Heaven in 2002, using Kieslowski's original screenplay. In 2005, Bosnian director Danis Tanović directed L'Enfer (Hell) based on Kieslowski's screenplay sketches. The screenplay was completed by Krzysztof Piesiewicz, Kieslowski's screenwriter.
• The motion picture Se7en (1995) stars Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as two detectives who investigate a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins. This film makes many references to Dante's Divine Comedy.
• Liar Liar (1997) has the character Fletcher Reed describe himself as descending into the seventh circle of Hell, which is the circle of self-inflicted pain.
• Various episodes of The Sopranos refer to the Dante's circles of hell. For example:
  • In "Whoever Did This" (2002), a TV journalist reports how a boom microphone accidentally knocked Uncle Junior down "nine, no seven" steps at the courthouse where Junior's RICO trial was being held.
  • In "Join the Club" (2006), Tony has a recurring coma-dream in which he checks into Room 728 (i.e., level seven) at the Omni hotel in Costa Mesa, using the identity of non-mafia civilian Kevin Finnerty. When the hotel elevator is out of commission, Tony descends a red staircase, slips, and falls to level five. Tony's surgeon, Dr. Plepler, tells Tony's wife, sisters and daughter they're lucky Tony's at a Level '1 trauma center. (Level one is Limbo).
• Jean-Luc Godard's 2004 film Notre musique is structured in three parts, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise respectively, alluding to the Divine Comedy.
• The 2005 BBC drama series Messiah IV: The Harrowing focuses on a serial killer who takes inspiration from Inferno to punish his or her victims.
• In 2005, Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, references the 9th circle of hell when speaking to Barbossa's cursed pirates.
• The first scene of the movie Clerks II (2006) is titled "Dante's Inferno".
• In the movie 300 (2007), Ephialtes of Trachis is the Greek that betrays the Spartans to their doom. Ephialtes is also the name of one of the Giants guarding the 9th circle of Hell—Treachery.
• The film Dante's Inferno (2007) is based on Sandow Birk's contemporary drawings of the Divine Comedy. The film accurately retells the original story, but with the addition of more recent residents of Hell such as Adolf Hitler and Boss Tweed.
• In the movie Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), Buck warns the troupe, "Abandon hope, ye who enter here!"
• The film Pandorum (2009) makes several allusions to The Divine Comedy.
• The short documentary Dante's Inferno – Abandon All Hope (2010) is based on Gustave Dore's lithographs of the Divine Comedy and the 1911 silent film, L'Inferno.
• Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother (2010) recites part of the Divine Comedy in episode 22 of the 5th season.
• A 3D live-action film trilogy based on the three parts of the Divine Comedy produced by a company known as Master Films Productions is in the works. It is directed by Boris Acosta, and involves people who've worked on films such as The Lord of the Rings.