La Francesca da Rimini nella vita dell'Alighieri. Due film danteschi 1921-1922

This essay endeavors to put forth a comparative analysis of two Italian silent films that commemorate Dante, produced around 1921. Reassessing Dante’s literary influence within the context of Italian cinema of the 1920s offers an opportunity to highlight the considerable evolution cinema has experienced in just two decades, particularly in terms of the linguistic, aesthetic, and productive capabilities of fictional films. These movies, indeed, exemplify how advanced knowledge and innovative techniques converged synergistically to enrich the lofty aspirations of cinematic representation. Initially, in 1911, Dante’s films like "Inferno" (Milano Films) and "Visions of Inferno" (Helios Film) drew on the resources of illustration and created 'animated shots', which essentially are single frames that remake illustrations adding movement. Subsequently, in the years 1921-1922, they leveraged elements from theatre – prose, and opera – to strengthen the rise of cinema as a full form of art, thereby contributing to the development of cinema itself. At the focal point of the visual and narrative construction of these two films lies the episode of Paolo and Francesca, revisited in the 1920s through D’Annunzio’s tragedy and Riccardo Zandonai’s opera, both titled "Francesca da Rimini".