A classic short film likely known to art school kids, Stan Brakhage’s The Dante Quartet was the product of his fascination with Dante’s Divine Comedy. The short film is six minutes long–and took as many years to produce! These hypnotic images are unlike any other because Brakhage hand painted each image directly onto 35 mm film.
Then comes a moment when suddenly I can’t handle the language anymore … I realize it’s in my eyes all the time, that I have a vision of Hell. I can go through the stages of purging the self, of trying to become pure, free of these ghastly visions, and then there is something that’s as close to Heaven as I would hope to aspire to …
-Stan Brakhage