Customer Reviews

Dante - The Divine Comedy

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Recently, I purchased a copy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's rendition of the Divine Comedy, with drawings by Doré, and thought it was time to look into more background for this landmark work of literature. I already had John Ciardi's more modern translation of the Inferno, with endnotes, which is a very useful tool for studying Dante. But more helpful still is the background material provided here, along with a video presentation of some of the greatest Dante-related masterpieces ever painted, including as you'd guess, works by Hieronymus Bosch. The scholars' comments on this disc are interesting and insightful, and the paintings well documented. My only complaint being; the enactment of the action described in the book is somewhat disposable, although forgivably brief. I have seen the first part of the TV Dante, prepared for the BBC, no longer available, and never released on DVD, and that was very interesting and frightening. I keep holding out hope someone will see fit to release that series as a set, and for either a reissue of the obscure movie, or perhaps a completely new version. A modernized re-telling of the story, with characters from our would, although problematic, would be welcome*. In the meantime, this documentary is an interesting and reasonably scholarly addition to the video library of anyone committed to a serious study of classic literature.

*Someone finally did this. See: Dante's Inferno ~ James Cromwell, John Fleck, Dermot Mulroney, and Martha Plimpton (DVD - 2008). It's worth the purchase price just for the concept alone. The animation style is strange, but it more-or-less sticks to the original concept, in that Dante and Virgil are still going through Hell to get to Purgatory, and the punishments they encounter along the way are oddly appropriate. It's a little more adult oriented, and done with a humorous slant, but it still feels like Dante, and that's what's important.

Unlike most films about Dante's great poem, this hour-long documentary covers all three cantiche, not just Inferno. That alone sets it apart. The live-action representations of Dante, Virgil, and Beatrice aren't especially well done, but the interviews with various British scholars are quite interesting, and the film is bursting with art. Good narration, good music -- an overall professional production that anyone interested in Dante would enjoy. A great visual introduction for high school students as well.

Written circa 1300 A.D., by Dante Alighieri (AKA: Dante), "The Divine Comedy" is the first major work written in Italian instead of Latin, and uses Dante himself as the main character in the literary work. It is a journey of despair, revelation, and repentance; towards ultimate salvation. The piece is otherwise referred to as a comedia; as opposed to being a tragedia. Dante was an active poet in an avant garde culture; or a very experimental, innovative time period. Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), Stasinus (son-in-law of Homer), Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus), and Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso); all were strong influences upon Dante. The philosophy, morals, and beliefs of medieval Europe from 1265 B.C. to 1300 B.C., are predominant in this masterpiece.
It has been said that all of us at one point in our lives, become acquainted with our interpretation of someone who epitomizes the essence and beauty of God's love with skin on it. For Dante, that was the woman Beatrice, who plays heavily into his story.
It can be noted that Dante's comedy is divided into 3 parts, as are the kingdoms of Catholic faith, regarding the afterlife - the Inferno (hell), Purgatorio (purgatory), and Paradiso (paradise).
The panther of self-indulgent sin, the lion of violent sin, and the she-wolf of malicious sin are parts of the Inferno. "All hope abandon ye, who enter here" being part of what is written upon the gates of hell. Hell is given structure and definition into levels, circles, and other aspects, which categorize the experience.
In purgatory, the sun represents God's light; which is the only time one can travel there. Purgatory is also divided into levels in Dante's comedy; such as anti-purgatory (last minute confessions, those who busied themselves with worldly cares, and those who would have confessed if given a chance before death robbed them of it); next, the gate keeper prepares those who pass into the next level through confession, contrition, and satisfaction. Each of the seven deadly sins requires a commensurate penance. It is here that this DVD assures us Dante's "The Divine Comedy" is not anti-religion, as some assume.
Now we are guided into paradise, which has been interpreted in a spectrum of possibilities of allegorical meaning, by scholars beginning in Dante's own time period, through to this very day. Which is the purpose of including so much art, and the mention of such musical contributions as one by Franz Liszt, the Hungarian composer.
As with the previous kingdoms, it remains true that paradise also is categorized into levels and rings, where the love of God emanates to all within paradise. Thirteenth and fourteenth century astronomy plays into Dante's definition for the structure of paradise.
This DVD is an introduction to Dante's "The Divine Comedy" (a poem of 14,233 lines, each of eleven syllables, divided into 100 cantos; or besides the introduction, 33 cantos for each of the three categories of the afterlife experience), and this DVD should be understood as being only a primer (it does not contain or present Dante's poem in full). There are many images from centuries of art that have been influenced by Dante's comedia. Several scholars help narrate the DVD presentation, which help us understand the backgrounds and meanings of "The Divine Comedy." Whereas this DVD presentation is highly academic and likely to be a quintessentially useful tool for high schools, colleges, or universities; to the less enthusiastic or less spiritually learned, it probably will become a bit tedious and boring. In other words, if you work side by side with a reprehensible, moronic cad who spends more time maliciously conniving up torment and misery for others, giving that person this DVD as a gift will waste your time and money. It takes being concerned with the afterlife and spiritual eternity of man's existence before this movie can help you appreciate, understand, and pique your interest in Dante's "The Divine Comedy." Although, there are entire websites devoted to Dante's poem, and the comprehensive relativity of it, in case you are among the interested.
Having said that, I still give this documentary style DVD a 5 star rating.

They make you believe it is a live action feature film when it is actually a bad documentary about the whole Divine Comedy. Only those that have studied the poem could actually understand what's going on in this film and that is not bad enough.

They filmed footage of Hell under the sun, yes it is true. Beatrice wears a hippie style dress when she is supposed to look angelic. In addition, they hired an actor that portrays Virgil who is not only young but also seems to be younger than the actor playing Dante, who wears a strange color dress instead of the classical red dress. People speaking in the film are completely unknown and explain things in such an odd way that a friend of mine who watched the film didn't understand anything. And what do the British know better than the Italians about The Divine Comedy, who study this masterpiece since early age in their lives?

Really Bad!!!

The documentary is worth watching for the pictures and some keeping the storyline in order. However I think it was an accident as they had no plan when they made this documentary on how to make a documentary. If Dante had not been meticulous in his order of things this presentation would have been complete chaos.

We have several people that never talked to each other with completely different concepts of Dante. This would not be so ban in its self but the thread keep jumping from one quasi-authority to another. Most of the time they were talking about separate levels of heaven and hell; so you went up and down like a yo-yo. My favorite part is when one authority said that Dante never went to university and the next interviewed authority showed the university that his father paid his way through.

The culprits - Professor Zygmont, Dr. Catherine Keen of St John's College, Cambridge, Dr. Simon Gilson of Warwick University, Dr. Robin Kirkpatrick of Robinson College, Cambridge, plus author and leading Dante authority Dr. Anna Lawrence.
Summary written by G. Forman

The English subtitles said Camebridge not Cambridge. I can't spell but then again I am not writing sub-titles.