Dante's Inferno (2007 film)

Dante's Inferno is a 2007 comedy film performed with hand-drawn paper puppets on a theater stage. The film was adapted from the book "Dante's Inferno" by Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders (Chronicle Books, 2004), a modern update of the canticle Inferno from Dante Alighieri's epic poem Divine Comedy. The film chronicles Dante's (voiced by Dermot Mulroney) journeys through the underworld, guided by Virgil (voiced by James Cromwell). The head puppeteer was Paul Zaloom and the puppets were designed by Elyse Pignolet and drawn by Sandow Birk. The film premiered January 20, 2007 at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival. The film has also been shown at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, Silver Lake Film Festival, the Boston Underground Film Festival, and on the Ovation TV cable network.

Voice cast

 * Tony Abatemacro - Lying Defendant, Farinata
 * Scott Adsit - Judge Minos, Paolo, Hirohito, Spiro Agnew
 * Matt Besser - Metallica Defendant, L. Ron Hubbard, Curtis LeMay,
 * Bill Chott - Ciaccio 'El Gordo', Calvacanti, Joseph Stalin, Ulysses' Crew
 * Mike Coleman - Charon, Phlegyas, Senator, Dick Cheney
 * James Cromwell - Virgil
 * Andrew Daly - Lucan, "Right On" Glutton, Jim Jones, Airport Screener, Ulysses' Naysayer
 * John Fleck - Brunetto Latini
 * Sean Forrester - Horace, Filippo Argenti, White Pimp, Beating Victim, Airport Security, Insider Trader #2
 * Tony Hale - Ovid, Real Estate Broker, Pope Nicholas III
 * Tom Hallick - George Sanders, Deep Voiced Lobbyist
 * Brandon Johnson - Irate Driver, Mounted Policeman, Pimp #1, Pimp #3, Airport Security
 * Laura Krafft - George Sand, Airport P.A., Subway P.A.
 * Dermot Mulroney - Dante
 * Martha Plimpton - Celia, Lobbyist Singer, Lizzie Borden
 * Kit Pongetti - W.M.D. Defendant, Francesca, Marilyn Monroe, Elena Ceaușescu
 * Tami Sagher - George Eliot, Greed Seductress, Barbara Bates, Penelope
 * Dana Snyder - Strom Thurmond, Ulysses
 * Janet Varney - Teacher, Cleopatra, City of Dis Intercom, Ulysses' Usher
 * Matt Walsh - Benito Mussolini, Fox Reporter, Airport Security Pursuer
 * Paul Zaloom - Homer, God, Officer Chiron, Southern Lobbyist, Airport Security, Caiaphas, Ulysses' Crew, Macmud, Insider Trader #1, Nicolae Ceaușescu


 * Mark Ritts - Gianciotto or Giovanni Malatesta

Reception
Film critic Curt Holman gave the film 3 stars and said it had a "far-ranging and bawdy satirical spirit." Film critic Kevin Stewart said "such political satire is very fitting for the manner and the times."

"There’s enough of the divinely comic in this 'Inferno' to justify a pair of sequels" -Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix, March 2007

"...feels like the unholy offspring of Mike Judge and R. Crumb." – Robert Abele, LA Times, May 2007

Director Sean Meredith won the "Best Director" award at the Silver Lake Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2007, and the film won the "Audience Favorite" award at the San Francisco IndieFest in 2007. Boston Underground Film Festival gave it the Spirit of Underground award in 2007. The jury at the 2007 Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival gave the award for Best Narrative Feature.