September 14, 2026
Dante's Inferno (1911)
Dante's Inferno was, according to my sources, (IMDb, Letterboxed, Wikipedia, & Terror Vision) the very first full length movie made in Italy.
It was, as I understand it, a huge success, and, thus, the inspiration for a whole series of lavish productions that the Italians referred to as "Super Productions". Amongst the surviving examples of these was The Last Days of Pompeii which we showed last month and inspired me to stream this particular film.
The Italian super-productions were immensely influential and made film a respectable art form in Europe. It is my understanding that this and other such lavish pre-war Italian productions actually inspired Cecil B. DeMille with regards to his massive sets and casts of thousands. Thus, I was particularly intrigued about the film.
The movie, like most pre-World War One films, does not use very many camera techniques that we would expect, instead being very much a filmed play. The difference here is that the sets are lavish, and frequently outdoors, and the cast is far larger than one could get on any stage.
There is little in the way of adaptation decay in this film, it is a straight, if abridged retelling of the Hellscape portion of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and the visual effects are quite convincing. Particularly good use is made of forced perspective techniques in several scenes. The primitive cinematography does not detract from the presentation at all.
The lack of any "hook" or other story adaptation may make the film feel "off" to modern audiences, but it is very faithful to the source material and that probably contributed to the films purported respectability.
The thing that surprised me most in this 1911 film was all the nudity.
Yeah: A lot of folks in hell don't have any clothes! Who knew? (Dante Alighieri did, he mentions it in the book). The demons do wear shorts though.
This is a reminder for streamers or educators to always pre-screen any silent films as they are pre-code. I normally do so, but Saturday I ran Dante's Inferno cold and, well...
Be advised if you want to show this historic film to students that it would have a hard "R" rating in the U.S. there is no (at least none that I saw) full frontal nudity but there are a ton of bare butts, and a few bosoms. Much use is made of skin tight costumes to maintain some level of decorum, but if "artistic nudity" is not your thing, this film likely won't be either.
Films before the great war were spicier than I'd thought.
Anyway, this was an exceedingly interesting film and is absolutely amazing in quality to be Italy's first movie. I likely will not be putting up the V.O.D. due to the nudity, but the film is definitely worth a watch for a historian or film buff, and holds up quite well today.
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September 13, 2026
The Best Video on This topic I've Seen
This video is an example of the huge boon that long-form internet interviews can be to our discourse.
Richard Minter is soft spoken, knowledgeable and precise. He does not do slogans, or mic-drops. One result is that he does not fit into a sound-byte resulting in him being not as well known as a lot of online "experts".
Every interview of him or talk by him, that I have seen has been exceedingly informative.
This is no exception:
While the interviewer is focused specifically on the 9-11-2001 attacks, Minter gives a wide ranging and holistic assessment of the methods, issues, the cultural misunderstandings, pathologies, and the failures that led to them, the lessons (both learned and not) and the social dynamics that led to this awful deed and still plague us today.
It's 3 hours long. It's worth your time. MAKE TIME. Just don't do it while you are driving because there are WTF moments that might lead to a wreck.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
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September 11, 2026
Why Still?
I know many people, who, having been born after 2001, are bewildered by how much the Sept. 11 attacks of that year affected those of us who lived through it.
The Cold War had ended without Global Thermonuclear annihilation, and we had won, this was a pleasant surprise at the time. The economy, still riding the high from the 1980s, SEEMED to be doing well.
The future at 8:45am that day, looked extremely bright, in a way that someone in their 20s or younger cannot imagine today, and we were free, freer than we even knew, and likewise more so than 20somethings can likely even comprehend as a possibility today.
And then, 08:46...
...which was followed by 17 minutes of confusion, curiosity and consternation, whereupon...
...09:03. At which point we all knew it was an attack.
After that, year by year, everything noticeably changed for the worse. It was certainly NOT the root cause of everything awful that has befallen our country and western civilization in general.
Most of those things were the work of policies that were implemented in the early 70's and the mid to late '90s, while our polity was focused on other things.
However, for us, that was when the grim trends began to be noticed. It's a demarcation point in our timeline, every bit as important as 2008, or 2020.
It is for that reason, and the remembrance of those brutally murdered that day...
That we will not forget.
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September 03, 2026
As God is My Witness....
...I thought this had to be a joke.
Hey, Mr. Carney....
Begun, this meme-war has....
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
09:49 AM
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