“Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan involves a complex weaving of many borrowed elements, the most important of which is the Star Trek television series, as well as Moby-Dick, and A Tale of Two Cities. The intertextual mix is suggested in a shot early in the film when we are first introduced to Khan by scanning his bookshelf. In addition to a sign from his ship, the Botany Bay (named after a historic port in Australia through which many convicts entered the country), there are Dante’s Inferno, King Lear, The King James Bible, Moby-Dick, and two copies of Paradise Lost. Each book suggests aspects of Khan’s character. Though other references remain implicit, the Moby-Dick references are explicitly explored throughout the movie.” — Posted by ebreilly on Critical Commons
Khan’s Bookshelf in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
BioWare Animator Creates Gorgeous ‘Dante’s Inferno’ Short Film
“BioWare animator Tal Peleg released a new animated (NSFW) short film based on Visceral Games’ 2010 action title ‘Dante’s Inferno’ on Sunday.
“The game was loosely based on Dante Alighieri’s long narrative poem The Divine Comedy. But, it reimagines the poet as a Templar knight who goes on a bloody journey through the nine circles of Hell to rescue Beatrice from Lucifer.
“Peleg created his first ‘Dante’s Inferno’ fan fiction short four years ago. As a lover of both fantasy/medieval art and action-RPGs, he said in a recent behind-the-scenes blog post the game couldn’t have come out at a better time.” […] –Stefanie Fogel, Variety, November 20, 2018
Le LA du Monde a film directed by Ghislaine Avan
“Tap-dancer, choreographer, and video artist, Ghislaine Avan has been working since 2006 to achieve a choreographic and transmedia work inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy.
“The diptych includes a choreographic ensemble of 10 pieces entitled Seuil (Threshold), and a film entitled Le LA du Monde, the result of filming, since 2006, people around the world, from all backgrounds, nationalities and in all languages, reading an excerpt from Dante’s poem.”
Of the project’s goals, the artist lists the following:
- “Celebrating on September 14, 2021, the 700th Anniversary of Dante’s death.
- “Realizing/Creating a worldwide installation entitled Divine Babel: the simultaneous screening of the film Le LA du Monde with the 100 cantos of the Comedy projected on 100 screens, located in 100 different places around the world.
- “Representing all continents to make this Babel truly divine.”
View the English trailer for “Le LA du Monde” on YouTube.
Contributed by Ghislaine Avanghi
And the Tenth Circle of Dante’s Hell is …
“Hell, Dante tells us, has nine circles, each one reserved for souls guilty of particular sins. The greedy, for example, go to the Third Circle, while heretics are flung down into the Fourth. If you’ve lived a lustful life, full of debauchery and fornication, you will find yourself in the second circle, writhing and naked with millions of other lustful souls who — wait, how exactly is that a punishment? According to Dante, the worst Circles of Hell are reserved for fraudsters and traitors, suggesting that he’d had an unfortunate disagreement with his publisher over royalties. But the great Italian fell short in his demonic visions, because there is another Circle of Hell: the Tenth. It is a place of infinite suffering and utter despair, echoing with the wailing of the damned. It is a movie theatre called Cinepolis Junior.” […] –Tom Eaton, Rand Daily Mail, March 14, 2017
Tenth Circle (2008), Lifetime movie based on Jodi Picoult’s novel
“Set in a small village in Maine, Circle features teen orgies, adultery, boy toys, date rape drugs, self-inflicted maiming and a suicide that might be murder.
“All this plays out against the unsubtle backdrop of high school teacher Laura Stone (Kelly Preston) teaching a course in Dante, whose Divine Comedy never foreshadows anything too pleasant.
“In fact, the title of the best-selling Jodi Picoult novel from which the film was adapted suggests Dante didn’t go far enough for the modern world – that where Dante created only nine circles of eternal purgatory, these days we need a 10th.
“Seems that since Dante outlined Hell in the early 14th century, we’ve somehow stepped up our game and developed another level of wickedness.” […] –David Hinckley, NY Daily News, June 27, 2008
Lars von Trier’s The House That Jack Built (2018)
“Director Lars von Trier has shared a new piece of art for his controversial The House That Jack Built that echoes Eugène Delacroix’s ‘The Barque Of Dante’ (1822), which is loosely based on fictional events taken from canto eight of Dante’s Inferno.
“’A leaden, smoky mist and the blazing City of the Dead form the backdrop against which the poet Dante endures a fearful crossing of the River Styx,’ wiki explains. ‘He is steadied by the learned poet of antiquity Virgil as they plough through waters heaving with tormented souls.’
“In the film, Matt Dillon (Wayward Pines) stars as a serial killer who views each of his murders as a work of art.” — Brad Miska, “The House That Jack Built Art Recreates Dante’s Inferno,” Bloody Disgusting, May 16, 2018
Throughout the film, Jack confesses his exploits in a retrospective narrative to a character named “Verge,” a nod to Virgil, voiced by Bruno Ganz and pictured in the role of Virgil in the image above.
An American Werewolf In London (1981)
In John Landis’ 1981 cult classic An American Werewolf In London, at 65:30 you can see a bust of Dante Alighieri in the Doctor’s study.
You can watch the full movie on Amazon Prime, Youtube, Google Play, Vudu, and on iTunes.
Nine Circles of Hell (1989 Cambodian film)
“The Czech-Cambodian Devět kruhů pekla (Nine Circles of Hell) is a poignant love story set amidst the hell of the Pol Pot regime. As the Khmer Rouge carves a path of death throughout the land, a Czech doctor Milan Knazko falls in love with a Cambodian woman Oum Savanny. Their relationship, though sorely strained by the war’s horrors, produces a child. The doctor is separated from his family once Pol Pot assumes control. Devět kruhů pekla was financed in part by the Ministry of Culture of the Kampuchean People’s Republic.” — Synopsis from film-enstreaming.com
The film was screen at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005, dir. by Cristi Puiu)
“Set in Bucharest, Romania, an ailing old man is carried by an ambulance from hospital to hospital during one night, while doctors refuse to treat
him. The ever-worsening journey of Mr Lazarescu, whose first name is Dante becomes a descent into the Underworld of Romania’s medical
services. Echoes to Dante abound.” — Contributor Cristian Ispir
“The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is the first instalment in a projected series of ‘Six Stories from the Bucharest Suburbs’. Puiu cites Eric Rohmer’s Moral Tales as his chief inspiration, but on this evidence an equally telling parallel would be Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Dekalog, though Puiu is more inclined towards self-conscious symbolism than the Pole. There are characters called Dante and Virgil and an unseen Dr Anghel, and the various hospital trips and their cyclical routines would match anyone’s idea of hell. And although the film’s title and mounting medical evidence suggests the opposite, Lazarescu’s own name hints that some kind of miraculous resurrection might be in prospect. It’s not just the film’s ambiguous ending that supports this, but also Fiscuteanu’s uncannily convincing portrayal of a man increasingly aware that he’s crossing the bridge between life and death but fiercely determined not to go without a fight, even as his faculties betray him. If Puiu’s main theme is the absence of love, his film is ultimately about the love of life.” — Review by Michael Brooke for the British Film Institute’s Sight & Sound magazine
Contributed by Cristian Ispir (University College London/Université de Lorraine)
Dustin Rosemark’s Inferno Film
“We’re making an independent HORROR/THRILLER hybrid, executed with hand-made PRACTICAL EFFECTS and shot entirely on 8mm & 16mm B+W FILM.
“Inferno is a contemporary adaptation of Dante’s Inferno. The film will be shot entirely on traditional motion picture film with hand-made practical effects. Inferno is the story a Dante, a man in the midst of a midlife crisis. At the beginning of the film Dante is a lost soul, unsure of himself and his future. With the help of his guide Virgil, he descends into the underworld and through each of the nine circles of Hell. Each circle represents a different mortal sin, and each circle teaches Dante a different lesson on his path to enlightenment. Along the way the pair encounter treacherous allies, villainous monsters and a number of things that aren’t quite what they seem. Ultimately Dante reaches the 9th and final circle of Hell, where me meets Lucifer and learns a lesson which will change him forever.” — Kickstarter Page for Dustin Rosemark’s Inferno
