«Sapeva il vero nome di tutte le stelle»: Il Dante di Pupi Avati

The essay aims to reflect on the broad and well-established popularity of Dante in cinema: his work – particularly the first cantica of the Divine Comedy – has always been an inexhaustible source of inspiration, enriching the cinematic language through its imaginative power and providing a range of extraordinarily effective themes and images that have found tangible expression in the realm of visual and narrative exploration. After a survey of recent films on Dantean themes, the essay offers a critical reading of Dante, Pupi Avati’s 2021 feature film, with the goal of identifying the literary sources – both Dantean and non-Dantean – and their function in the complex elaboration of its narrative structure.