Via the the twitter account of Ewan Morrison, I came across this gem. The oldest existing feature length film is none other than a 1911 silent version of Dante’s Inferno from Italy. The whole thing is on YouTube:
For those who might prefer a suitably bite-sized chunk for our modern age, here are the bits from Ewan Morrison’s tweets:
The Inferno was a 1911 Italian silent feature film based on Dante's Divine Comedy & the illustrations by Gustave Dore. L'Inferno took $2 million in the US Box office & was arguably the first ever blockbuster. even though American censors removed many of the nude scenes of Hell. pic.twitter.com/utjPvKrP3D
— ewan morrison (@MrEwanMorrison) October 9, 2018
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Who could not be terrified by these poking devils?:
Pt.2. A noted review of L'Inferno from 1911 said "They have made Dante intelligible to the masses. The immortal work, whose beauties until now were accessible only to a small band of scholars, has now after asleep of more than six centuries become the property of mankind." pic.twitter.com/Dpdd41ZrT9
— ewan morrison (@MrEwanMorrison) October 9, 2018
Séamus Sweeney 