Movie-A-Day #112: Dante’s Inferno (2007).

“The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri is one of the earliest literary classics. A journey through hell, purgatory and heaven, it was a mixture of medieval theology and personal psychological meta-fiction – a work both of its time and very much ahead of its time. The narrative is constructed around a very specific time, Easter weekend in 1300, with the journey beginning on Good Friday.

The story’s thick tangle of arcane Catholic theology and medieval historical references have made the “Comedy” notoriously difficult to adapt to film, although there have been a couple half-hearted attempts. But for Good Friday 2011, we look at the 2007 version of “Dante’s Inferno,” a version of the first book of the “Comedy,” updated to the modern era with paper puppetry. It’s a very experimental adaptation, but a worthy effort.

May you all each find your own personal Virgil.