The italian epic came of age with Giuseppe de Liguoro's imaginative silent film of the inferno, loosely adapted from Dante and inspired by the illustrations of Gustave Doré. L'inferno was first screened in Neaples in the Teatro Mercadante 10 March 1911.The film took over three years to make involving more than 150 people and was the first full lenght italian feature film ever made. It was an international hit taking more than $2 million in the United States alone.
