Hi sixpence,
The film you are seeking is "A TV Dante. Inferno 1-8", a video
directed by Peter Greenaway and Tom Phillips. It was produced for
Channel Four Television Ltd, London from 1984-89 and was screened on
Channel Four. The film was awarded "Best experimental video of 1990"
at the Montreal International Film and Video Festival.
"By far the most ambitious project to translate Dante from print into
video is "A TV Dante" ... It will eventually consist of 34 episodes,
one on each canto of the "Inferno". So far the first eight episodes
have been completed. The programs are directed by Tom Phillips and
Peter Greenaway. Tom Phillips is a well known experimental artist,
novelist, and maker of books. In 1983 he translated and illustrated
the Inferno. Peter Greenaway, of course, is one of the foremost
contemporary intellectual and experimental filmmakers."
Italian Literature Transformed and Transported:
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/mcluhan-studies/v1_iss1/1_1art13.htm
"Each 10-minute episode (made for Channel Four in Britain...) uses one
canto from Dante's INFERNO; the first 8 of the 34 cantos in the
complete work are transformed into film ... With Tom Beck as Dante and
Sir John Gielgud as Virgil, his guide to Hell, the delivery of
Philips' translation is impeccable. The story is told using
head-and-shoulders shots of Gielgud and Beck, accompanied by image
superimposed on image, producing a kaleidoscopic effect. There are
even footnotes; at certain more obscure references a small screen pops
up, and a historian or cosmologist or entomologist explains the
reference, sometimes adding an ironic touch to Dante's words. This
produces the effect of TV hypertext, and helps keep everything
comprehensible, even if you've never read THE INFERNO. Stock footage
of WWII and nuclear explosions, of leopards and births, is used
throughout, making the 13th Century work feel surprisingly modern.
Again, any attempt to describe the rush of colour and shape is futile;
this has to be seen to be understood."
Andrew Kuchling, online posting to rec.arts.movies.reviews, 1992-03-03:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=1992Mar3.205600.5613%40cbnewsj.cb.att.com&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain
Dante's elaborate unfolding of Hell accounts for the tunnels and
crucibles, and the following description seems to match your
recollection:
"The eight Cantos of the film are not conventionally dramatised,
rather they are illuminated with layered and juxtaposed imagery and a
soundtrack which comments, counterpoints and clarifies. There are
visual footnotes delivered by relevant expert authorities, and these
often perform the function of narration as well as illustration. The
result is a dazzling video journey through Dante's underworld."
TV Dante Cantos I-VIII:
http://www.wayney.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/dante.htm
(this site includes some pictures)
Much more information is provided at the following site ...
A TV Dante:
http://www.brynmawr.edu/Alumnae/bulletin/dante.htm
... including a plot summary for the first Canto which matches your
description of a man becoming unconscious in a road traffic accident:
"As a siren wails above the noise of automobile traffic, images that
measure time and life fill the screen - a second hand sweeps around a
white dialface, which takes on shadows until it resembles the moon; an
ultrasound of an agitated heart pulses with colors as an
electocardiogram is plotted on a video monitor."
It certainly sounds like a fascinating film. Happy viewing!
Additional links:
Peter Greenaway Filmography
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000425/
Internet Movie Database entry for TV Dante:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098428/
Amazon UK entry for TV Dante:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004CQ42/ref=ase_imdb-uk/026-1241757-4456404
Google search strategy:
journey "no dialogue" movie OR film
://www.google.com/search?q=journey+%22no+dialogue%22+movie+OR+film+dante
I then added other search terms such as "accident", "journey",
"unconscious" and finally "historical figures" which led to a page
about Dante's Inferno which seemed to match your query. A search at
the Internet Movie Database then turned up the TV adaptation:
IMDB Title Search: Dante
http://www.imdb.com/find?tt=on;mx=20;q=Dante
Regards,
eiffel-ga |
Request for Answer Clarification by
sixpence-ga
on
13 Jan 2004 12:54 PST
I'm impressed with the detailed answer, but unfortunately this was not
the film I watched. I am certain I watched the film in 1988, not
1990, and I would have remembered if Sir John Gielgud had featured in
it.
I am, however, very impressed with the research behind the reply, and
from reading all the links supplied, I am convinced that the film I
saw shared the same plot/subject as the one described. It's just a
shame this is not the correct film!
|
Clarification of Answer by
eiffel-ga
on
14 Jan 2004 06:56 PST
Hi sixpence,
If the film you seek is not not "TV Dante"+, then this is going to be
a difficult search indeed. There doesn't seem to be anything else that
comes close, in terms of the plot/subject, opening theme of a traffic
accident, tunnels connecting different worlds, historical figures,
hell/crucibles, experimental moviemaking techniques, the Channel 4
connection, and seven years to make (from translation in 1983 to
completion in 1989).
If you saw it in 1988, it is possible that you saw some of the earlier
Cantos (each of which was made as a 10-minute short film) rather than
the set of Cantos 1-8 that were made into Greenaway's finished film.
If the plot seems familiar but Sir John Gielgud did not feature in it,
then possibly you saw not the final production but the 1985 pilot,
which the following site suggests may have been called "Inferno":
"In 1985 Phillips and Greenaway were commissioned to make the pilot
film for a possible series on Inferno - later to become Canto V. The
budget was small so that Phillips had to play the role of Dante and
Virgil himself, provide the voice for Minos and others. Only three
years later enough money was available to re-edit the pilot and shoot
the remaining cantos, I-IV and VI-VIII ... It is a psychedelic collage
of sound and image where the poet Dante wanders through the
accumulated wreckage of the millennia of Western culture, to the words
of Inferno."
"TV Dante 1-8 5Jun2002"
http://www.artsworld.com/tv/programme-highlights/020601-week-23/tv-dante-1-8-5jun2.html
Possibly your film could be another of Greenaway's works, but I'm
struggling to find any that come close. I mention "Fear of Drowning"
(1988)
http://www.wayney.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/fear.htm
just in case the historical characters that you remember were in fact
Pitt the Younger, Lord Nelson, George V, Charles II and Thomas
Gainsborough, though I suspect you would have mentioned "water" in
your question if this had indeed been your film. By the way,
Greenaway's "A Zed and Two Noughts"
http://www.wayney.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/zoo.htm
also starts with a car crash but has few other connections to the film
you saw. Peter Greenaway's own site is here:
http://www.wayney.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
Whilst assembling the original answer, also I looked at other makers
of "no-dialogue" films, and experimental filmmakers in general
http://dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/Filmmaking/Experimental/Filmmakers/
but nothing strongly suggested a match.
If you think that what you saw was neither "TV Dante" nor the
"Inferno" pilot, please try to recall some other clues. Things like
how long the film was, whether it appeared to be made for TV or not,
what was the narration like (assuming there was some), was there any
poetry, etc. And please list as many snippets and scenes as you can
recall - one of them might be the one that provides the vital clue.
As I was about to post this clarification, I found the following
description of the making of TV Dante by Tom Phillips, where he opens
with a specific point about the seven year timespan. It turns out that
the seven years was from the original suggestion by Kichael Kustow
that the film might be made, to the announcement in the TV Times that
it was on screen. This could indeed be 1982-1988! The more I look into
this, the more certain I am that this has to be TV Dante. Maybe
Gielgud's performance just wasn't memorable enough :-)
"The making of A TV Dante, Cantos I-VIII, is a long saga chronicled
without hindsight in the exhaustive minutes of A Dante Diary. As the
book occupied seven years from notion to realisation so the same span
separated Michael Kustow's original suggestion that I might like to
make a television version of the Inferno and the final announcement in
the TV Times that it was on screen."
Greenaway Guide - A TV Dante
http://www.worlds4.com/greenaway/shorts/grdanter.htm
Or perhaps you even saw "A Making of a TV Dante" rather than "TV Dante" itself?
Regards,
eiffel-ga
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
sixpence-ga
on
14 Jan 2004 13:32 PST
Thanks for your response, Eiffel. I am utterly convinced that the
plot/subject matter was indeed Dante. The clues I provided match the
theme entirely. I am inclined to believe I may have watched the pilot
version made in 1985, but for the fact that I can remember well that
there was no dialogue at all, apart from some chanting in Latin by
some religious figures (Popes or priests). I had always imagined that
once I knew what the film was, the title "Inferno" would be
immediately familiar, but strangely, it's not. I knew the title at
the time, but I have completely forgotten it now, and yet "Inferno"
does not leap out at me.
I definately watched it in 1988. I know this because I had just bought
a new TV and VCR with my first proper salary! I would have been
between May and perhaps September - it was Summer.
Perhaps I have to accept that it was a pilot I saw, but for what it's
worth, here is as detailed a list of further clues as I can give:
The first scene I think was some sort of waiting room, and a women who
at the time I thought was the actress Janine Duvitsky (but an IMDB
search for her yields no such film in which she featured). There was,
I recall, an insect in the room causing a disturbance, which caused
the male character to run outside into the path of a car (the
accident).
The man begins by blindly crawling through tunnels. The historical
figures were of the 1500-1600 era (dressed in Elizabethan costume,
ruffs, etc.) Some of them appeared as marrionette-type figures (not
alive, but not dead either).
There was a crucible with molten gold, and a foundry which churned out
crucifixes, with various stern-looking popes, authoritarian figures.
I am certain it was on Channel 4 (BBC1 and ITV would never have shown
something so off-the-wall, and maybe BBC2 would have, but I am
inclined to believe Channel 4 to be the channel it was aired on. I
beleive there may have been commercial breaks, which support this.
It has to be a Dante film, but which one? If I had access to TV
listings from between May and September 1988 I am sure I would find
it. Is this a possibility open to me?
|
Clarification of Answer by
eiffel-ga
on
15 Jan 2004 06:06 PST
Hi sixpence,
I've checked the results of Google searches of the form
?may 1988? dante OR inferno OR greenaway screened OR showed
for months from May to September, and have drawn a blank.
I also cannot find a source of Channel 4 schedules for 1988, either at
Channel 4's website or elsewhere. It is uncommon for schedules that
predate the invention of the web to be found on the web.
I did find an interview with Tom Phillips fron London's FICTION magazine, July 1988
http://www.tomphillips.co.uk/essaysan/xerri/
which says
?Latterly, he has turned his hand to translating, producing over seven
years his own version of another massive work, Dante's Inferno ... he
is now working with Peter Greenaway ... on a projected eight-hour
video-book of the Inferno, one Canto of which has been shown on
Channel Four.?
So we know that the pilot Canto was screened on Channel 4 by July
1988, and that a reference to the ?seven year? project was already
being made in 1988.
Your mention of Janine Duvitski is interesting. Although she doesn't
appear to have starred in any film that matches your remembered plot,
she did star in Peter Greenaway's ?Drowning By Numbers? which was also
produced by Channel 4. It was completed in early 1988 and likely
screened on Channel 4 that year.
Is it possible that you saw a screening of Drowning By Numbers
accompanied by a screening of the Dante pilot (as a kind of preview to
the anticipated arrival of TV Dante), together with a mention of the
7-year project? In that case, could you be recalling the plot from
Dante, together with the appearance of Janine Duvitski from Drowning
By Numbers?
Regards,
eiffel-ga
|
