Dante's Inferno
Judith Paris as Lizzie Siddal and Oliver Reed as Rossetti.
Genre	Costume drama
Written by	Austin Frazer
Directed by	Ken Russell
Starring	Oliver Reed Judith Paris Andrew Faulds Iza Teller Christopher Logue
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	1
Production
Producer(s)	Ken Russell
Running time	90 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC
Original airing	December 22, 1967 (1967-12-22)

Dante's Inferno: The Private Life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Poet and Painter (1967) is a feature-length television film directed by Ken Russell about the relationship between Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal. It was one of a series of films made by Russell for the BBC during the 1960s about the lives of artists and musicians. It was first shown on December 22 1967 as part of the arts series Omnibus.

Contents 1 Inception 2 Cast 3 Plot 4 Reception 5 Notes

[edit] Inception

The film was first proposed by Bryan Forbes, but he thought it might be too uncommercial, and passed the idea to Russell. Russell thought that a story about a man who exhumes his dead wife and then is haunted by the deed was highly dramatic and marketable.^[1] Russell cast many of his friends and used amateur actors, including the pop artist Derek Boshier as Millais and the poet Christopher Logue as Swinburne."^[1] Much of the location shooting was done in the Lake District.

[edit] Cast

• Oliver Reed as Dante Gabriel Rossetti
• Judith Paris as Elizabeth Siddal
• Andrew Faulds as William Morris
• Iza Teller as Christina Rossetti
• Christopher Logue as Algernon Swinburne
• Gala Mitchell as Jane Morris
• Pat Ashton as Fanny Cornforth
• Clive Goodwin as John Ruskin
• David Jones as Charles Augustus Howell
• Norman Dewhurst as Edward Burne-Jones
• Tony Gray as William Michael Rossetti
• Douglas Gray as William Holman Hunt
• Derek Boshier as John Everett Millais
• Caroline Coon as Annie Miller
• Janet Deuters as Emma Brown
• Austin Frazer, the narrator.

[edit] Plot

The exhumation of Lizzie Siddal's desiccated body is seen, followed by a shot of Rossetti dancing among the flames of a bonfire of paintings by Reynolds and Gainsborough. A voice-over informs us that Rossetti is a founder of a revolutionary group of artists called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The figure of the young Lizzie dressed as Joan of Arc appears above the flames.

Lizzie is seen modelling for Millais' Ophelia and for a painting of Joan by Rossetti. The voice-over states that she eats little and often throws it up. She and Rossetti spend several years together while he paints and draws her, but she spurns his sexual advances, even slashing him with a needle when he presses himself on her. Rossetti turns to the more accommodating Fanny Cornforth.

Lizzie is introduced to laudanum by Emma Brown to alleviate her stomach pain. She is advised by Christina Rossetti that Dante Gabriel needs a patron. Christina's voice-over speaks her poem In an Artist's Studio, about Lizzie. She tells Lizzie she looks ill. Rossetti and Christina visit William Holman Hunt, who is painting The Light of the World. Hunt asks Rossetti to look after his girlfriend Annie Miller while he is away in the Holy Land painting The Scapegoat, but Rossetti has an affair with her and Hunt spurns her on his return. John Ruskin visits Rossetti's studio and shows an interest in Lizzie's art.

Rossetti meets Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris in Oxford and encounters the beautiful Jane Burden. They paint the Oxford Union murals. Jane marries Morris and Rossetti marries Lizzie. Lizzie becomes increasingly hysterical due to her laudanum use and Rossetti's philandering. She dies from an overdose. Rossetti buries his unpublished poems with her.

Some years later Charles Augustus Howell persuades him to dig the poems up, but Rossetti is haunted by the image of the dead Lizzie and becomes addicted to chloral. Fanny Cornforth rescues him from a suicide attempt, but Rossetti is now increasingly obsessed by Morris's wife Jane. He sleeps with her when Morris is away in Iceland, but she remains distant. Isolated, with only the loyal Fanny to care for him, Rossetti sinks further into addiction.

[edit] Reception

Dante's Inferno has been described as "bit of a mess" despite moments of "inspired lunacy". Its style draws on both silent comedy and expressionist horror movies. Russell's biographer Joseph Lanza takes the view that its moody black and white photography makes the locations in the English Lake District seem like Dracula's Transylvania.^[1]

[edit] Notes