In the Hand of Dante
It’s 2025, and it seems that film festivals just got a new golden rule – every major event needs to have its own Megalopolis in the programme. Cannes already got one, so now it’s time for Venice, with its new unruly title. We are talking about In the Hand of Dante, an epic tale directed by a prominent artist, Julian Schrabel, which is a warehouse of thousands of hit-or-miss ideas, making this drama impossible to rate without at least chuckling once or twice.
In the first five minutes of In the Hand of Dante, Nick (Oscar Isaac), a modern reincarnation of Dante Alighieri (it’s a mad, mad, mad premise), a writer living in the US in 1997, gives us an anecdote about William Faulkner. It’s nothing significant (Nick says that Faulkner hated his editors), but the entire composition of this project of a lifetime is a bit Faulknerian, with constantly changing moods, themes, times and places.
There are two simultaneous stories: firstly, Schnabel delivers a period drama about the life of Dante (also played by Isaac), sort of allowing the audience to learn more about the legendary poet. Secondly, In the Hand of Dante also becomes a modern take on Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley. When Nick learns that the original manuscript of The Divine Comedy was finally found and meets Giulietta (Gal Gadot), the new incarnation of Gemma Donati (a former wife), his entire life will change in the blink of an eye.
In both timelines, we are spoiled by a stellar cast, playing both fictional and historical figures, either giving their best or worst performances in their entire filmographies. Apart from Isaac, these are: John Malkovich, Jason Momoa, Martin Scorsese, Franco Nero and many more (no wonder this film had dozens of co-producers – well, Scnhabel really needed the money). It’s only Gerard Butler, playing a spoiled con man, who somewhat keeps audiences invested in this gamble, which is imbued with unsettling cringe and histrionic acting. He’s the heart and the soul of this bizarre experiment.
Schnabel, just like his pal Coppola, is an ageing romantic, coming from the previous generation. By adapting Nick Tosches’s novel, the director galvanises himself into action – he makes his dream come true by trying to make Dante and Gemma reunite after 700 years, while also implying it is she and not Beatrice that Dante has truly loved. It doesn’t necessarily mean it works, watching Isaac and Gadot share more than a few kisses while quoting some forgotten lines from Alighieri’s masterpiece. It’s a peculiar image, making us wonder if Schnabel has lost any directorial self-awareness.
“All hope abandon, ye who enter here,” we read in Dante’s The Divine Comedy, and this augury should also be screened right before Schnabel’s film commences. It is a mess with a lot of passion and heart in it. While watching In the Hand of Dante, one keeps wondering what it is trying to be. A panegyric to Dante? A fairytale for the dreamers? Never mind – no answer will save this film from itself.
Jan Tracz
In the Hand of Dante does not have a release date yet.
Read more reviews from our Venice Film Festival coverage here.
For further information about the event visit the Venice Film Festival website here.
Watch a clip from In the Hand of Dante here:
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