Cinema Inferno
To mark its return to in-person events, The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco presented a beautifully restored print of the 1911 silent film l’Inferno di Dante, and invited me to be the onstage narrator.
A tour de force of cinematic invention, l’Inferno was Italy’s first feature-length film, and the world’s first blockbuster epic. It’s a strange and spectacular journey through hell by way of turn-of-the-century Italy, with settings and costumes inspired by the famed 19th-century illustrations of Gustave Doré, hundreds of extras (mostly naked—another cinematic first), wild animals, fire, brimstone, and inventive stage-magic-style special effects that I find even more hauntingly surreal and spectacular than the best of today’s computer-generated imagery. And this version was anything but silent. Projected on the big screen of the 1920s-era Castro Theater, with an original score performed live by the Sascha Jacobsen Quintet, it was a haunting, immersive experience. And for me, channeling Dante and hearing my voice echoing in two languages from the altar of that sacred cinematic space was a thrill that filled my heart with awe.
