# animate! › Films › His Comedy by Paul Bush › all › synopses › direction & collaboration › full production credits › film stills › tools & processes › format & distribution › background material

Canonical: https://animate.org.uk/films/hiscomedy/all

Discovery terms: 1990s animation, direct animation, engraving on film, war, violence, hell, literary adaptation, filmmaker

The following is the archived page text; discovery terms above are separately sourced metadata.

Archive status: restored in 2026; historical calls, deadlines and services are closed.

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**His Comedy** a film by Paul Bush

1994, 8 min

![His Comedy, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/hiscomedy01.jpg)

### animate! synopsis

Going down… A brimstone homage to Doré as Dante and Virgil get beneath the surface of things. Human horrors meet hellish retribution in this celluloid engraving.

### long synopsis

The poet Dante is taken by Virgil through the city of desolation and into the centre of hell. What he sees is not simply an apocalyptic vision of the punishment that awaits sinners after death but also the very real horrors commited by human hands on earth.

The film is based on Gustav Doré ’s nineteenth century engravings illustrating Dante’s **The Divine Comedy** and all the images are produced by engraving directly into the surface of 35mm colour filmstock.

### key credits

**director**
Paul Bush

**Dante**
Neale Goodrum

**Virgil**
Kevin Graal

**animation assistance**
Crimp Beringer

**sound designer**
Andy Cowton

### Paul Bush

#### biography

Paul Bush was born in 1956 and studied Fine Art at Central School and Goldsmiths College, London. He taught himself how to make films while a member of the London Film-makers Co-op and Chapter Film Workshop in Cardiff.

From 1981 to 1993 he taught film-making, establishing a film workshop in South London and supervising a wide variety of courses and the production of numerous student films. Between 1995 and 2001 he taught on the visual arts course at Goldsmiths.

He has lectured, run workshops and tutored at numerous art and film courses around the world including the Media Academy of Cologne, CalArts, St Lukas in Brussels, KASK in Ghent, HGK Lucerne, and the Royal College of Arts, Duncan of Jordanstone and the National Film & Television School in Britain.

2004

### animate! films by this artist

[Furniture Poetry](https://animate.org.uk/films/furniturepoetry/)

[His Comedy](https://animate.org.uk/films/hiscomedy/)

#### artist’s website

[Paul Bush](http://www.paulbushfilms.com/)

Paul’s website

### a film by Paul Bush

### direction

**director**
Paul Bush

### cast in picture

**Dante**
Neale Goodrum

**Virgil**
Kevin Graal

### image personnel

**animation assistance**
Crimp Beringer

### sound personnel

**sound designer**
Andy Cowton

### support

**special thanks**
Film and Photo Design, Les Latimer Film and Video, Warwick Sound London, Metrocolor Laboratories

**primary funding**
Arts Council and Channel Four Animate! award

© Paul Bush 1992

[![His Comedy, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/hiscomedy01.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/hiscomedy01.jpg)

*click on image for full size still*

[![His Comedy, still](https://animate.org.uk/stillslarge/hiscomedy02.jpg)](https://animate.org.uk/stillsfull/hiscomedy02.jpg)

*click on image for full size still*

### technical

#### process summary

All the images are producedby engraving directl into the surface of 35mm colour filmstock

### master copy format

**format**
35mm

**colour or black & white**
colour

### video distribution format

**video format**
BetaSP

**screen aspect ratio**
4:3

**video standard**
PAL

**sound type**
stereo

### film distribution format

**film format**
35mm

**screen aspect ratio**
1:1.33

**sound type**
Dolby SR Surround

### distributor

LUX
[info@lux.org.uk](mailto:info@lux.org.uk)
+44 (0)20 7503 3980
[www.lux.org.uk](http://www.lux.org.uk/)

**His Comedy** film, stills and other materials © Paul Bush 1992