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.

Frequently classed as the first "blockbuster" of its time because of its large production budget, long runtime and higher-than-average ticket costs at the box office, L'Inferno adopts Dante's prose and brings its pages to life with some decent production values helping it along the way. As far as adaptations go, the movie is fine and features a handful of impressive shots and sequences. The tone is brooding and somewhat haunting, which is appropriate given the source material. The problem though is that it's drawing from a book that (as far as I can fathom) is highly regarded for its lyrical beauty as opposed to its storytelling. Despite the film's best intentions then, you're nevertheless left to watch a bunch of scantily-clad white people faff around for 80 minutes either getting burned to varying degrees or flailing around in some water for whatever reason while another white guy (Dante) has a day-trip through hell in order to feel good about himself by looking down on and deriding the "sinners". For what it is, it's a somewhat interesting watch, but only for historical purposes. Well, that and to make you aware that as long as your sins are lust, gluttony, or fraud, things could be worse.

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.

Fantastic film for anyone interested in film history, Dante's Divine Comedy, or genre movies. The pure ambition of setting this story to film and the impressive staging of the circles of hell overcome the lack of sophisticated cinematic language to which we are accustomed. This is the era before the closeup, remember. What is absolutely unpardonable, however, is the presumptuous manner in which the company that put out the DVD has left their clumsy fingerprints all over this film and somehow decided that it is theirs. It is embarrassing, infuriating and obscene. These folks should be put in movie jail for plastering their names all over it in the artificial credit sequence and marrying the modern and inappropriate Tangerine Dream music to the picture - not as an audio option, mind you, but as the only option! This is the problem with public domain films - there is no one there to protect the film from the likes of these folks. The ridiculous way in which the credits are appended (tons of credits for each Tangerine Dream musician down to whoever provided the donuts during their sessions, but only a bare few credits for the 150 people who actually made this fantastic film in 1911. And no attempt to provide any information about the film, its production, the artists and technicians who made it, or what kind of music it was originally screened with. This is not as disgusting as the Queen version of Metropolis, but not far from it. There is a circle of hell in L'Inferno for film 'remix' people like these.