Belladonna: La sorcière

This film is a masterpiece. There are very few animation films that cross the territory into high art, but this is one. Calling it anime is kind of a disservice as it is more rooted in animated art films than it is anime. This may be Japans first animated masterpiece. But it was not done in a style many of us understand to be anime. It is deeply surrealistic in both imagery and approach. While some scenes are not animated, but rather hand painted still frames which are panned and edited together, but this never detracts from the overall context of the film. The animation itself is a blend of styles throughout the film, but the heavy use of watercolor lends well to the new 4K restored version.

This is a very adult film. It is highly sexual in nature. As an art film though from this era, it is actually not out of bounds. With that being said, art films, especially foreign ones, are not for everybody.

This is a feminist film, but it may be a difficult film to watch for some. So a bit of a trigger warning for those who care. The themes do deal deeply with sexual trauma and violence, and recovering from it. It is also though about finding independence in a patriarchal system, and ownership of ones own sexuality.

So beyond all that, if you do want to experience something different and beautiful, this film is something to behold. Everything from the great psychedelic rock, and free jazz soundtrack, to the mix of animation and artistic styles, we have a film that stands out even to this day. It is unique in what it offers. It's restoration should be celebrated.

On a side note, I have to credit AFI Silver in Silver Spring, MD for screening this film. It remains one of the best cinema's in the country as otherwise forgotten films find new audiences. This really has not been screened much in the US.

My hope is this does make it to blu-ray or some other media format. For now the credit is to the new distributors, but also arts cinemas like AFI Silver that are currently screening the film. It is a rare treat to see a film like this.

Wow. Sometimes something comes along that really genuinely blows me away and the viewing of this movie is one such very rare occasion. It's a film that was released in 1973 in an era when the adult cartoon was a new concept, typified by the likes of Fritz the Cat (1972), but Belladonna of Sadness by contrast attracted mainly negative criticism and it then seemed to more or less fall off the radar for many, many years. Having just seen it I can only say that this is a criminal state of affairs and that it is pretty seriously unfortunate, to say the least, that something so overwhelmingly artistically beautiful was disregarded and cast aside. The amount of artistic imagination and creativity on display here is pretty monumental.

Its regarded as a very early example of Japanese anime but it's like no other anime I have ever seen. While it definitely does have some material that would go on to be associated with the manga branch of Japanese anime, it is executed in a somewhat experimental manner. This is quite honestly more of an art film than an actual story. Many folks seem to have taken all manner of things away from this one in terms of its content, such as a feminist message and such. And while I agree that this is there, the sheer beauty of the artistry is so overwhelming that the contents of the story were completely overshadowed by the visceral sensory experience of watching this one. Despite its Japanese origins this one is set in the Middle Ages in Europe and it begins with a wedding of a young couple. The groom cannot pay the marriage tax so the baron exercises his 'rights' and rapes the bride. This trauma deeply affects the young couple and the woman turns to witchcraft.

Some may be taken aback by certain aspects of this one. Firstly, despite being an animated work, much of the story is told by still paintings and drawings. There are many elaborately detailed tableaux which the camera pans across and in so doing expands upon the narrative. There are many still pieces of art of varying styles, such as landscape watercolours, comic-book style figures and surrealism. These visual ideas are interwoven with early 70's styles such as psychedelia and transgressive underground comics. There are animated sections too, which make even more impact because they only appear every so often. There seems to be a general split where the narrative is depicted using stills and the inner working of the protagonists mind are animated. Consequently, this leads to the extended animated sequences being more dreamlike and surreal in nature. Accentuating all of this is an excellent soundtrack which works fantastically well with the imagery on screen. It's quite an eclectic score which features what could best be described as Japanese folk-pop and some out-and-out prog-rock.

As I said before, this isn't a film for everybody. Aside from its experimental approach, some may find the sexual content difficult. There are many examples of sexual imagery, although I wouldn't say it's exactly in erotic territory on account of its highly stylised presentation but also due to the disturbing nature of much of it. But despite the dark undercurrents to the material this is a film of enormous visual and aural beauty. In my personal opinion this has to go down as a stonewall classic and a great example of what the animated movie format is capable of.

Impressive work of art. The back cover of the Blu-ray states that this is the last film in the Animerama trilogy. In doing a little research I found that Animerama is defined as "...a series of thematically- related adult anime feature films originally conceived and initiated by Osamu Tezuka..." This third film was co-written and directed by Eiichi Yamamoto inspired by the book SATANISM AND WITCHCRAFT by Jules Michelet.

The animation is fairly basic. It's largely comprised of long paintings, done in watercolor. The effect reminds me of certain Japanese scrolls where, as they unwind, the story is told. In the case of this film, however, the camera slowly moves right to left along the painting, occasionally zooming in. There is also other limited use of cell animation where the camera is shooting each of the different cells and they are presented in sequence on film to show progression/movement...at a lower slower frame rate than, say, the average Disney cell animation. As mentioned, it's all fairly basic and yet still works well in combination with the other elements. Which are:

Narration, requiring reading of subtitles for those not fluent in Japanese.

And a great sound/music score that I wouldn't mind having on CD. It ranges from trippy to hauntingly beautiful with a few actual songs that are quite nice. And other chaotic or horrific or beautiful sounds and music. All complementing the imagery in a way that is very important to this type of animated film.

Who would I recommend this to. It deals with some pretty strong subject matter, not the least of which is rape. Horror fans may appreciate some of the darker aspects of the film. But beyond that: Do you appreciate art? Do you appreciate Japanese culture/history? Are you open to alternative forms of storytelling? If you answer yes to all then you will probably like this film. I thought it was one of those rare treats that I likely will revisit. I'm also now curious about the other two films in the Animerama trilogy.

Yeah.. There were a lot of extremely disturbing scenes which involved rape, 99.9% of nudity, sexism, betrayal, murder, corruption, you blooming name it!

I really appreciated the art like for a 1970's anime, it did a decent job in making your brain go all over the place. The storyline was quite on point to make you go "omg" or "WTF" the whole time.

Yeah this anime is pretty underrated and probably not to everyone's taste due to it being heavily disturbing so take note before watching!

Full Review on my blog max4movies: Kanashimi no Belladonna (international title: Belladonna of Sadness) is an experimental animation movie for an adult audience. Its plot focuses on Jeanne, a young and beautiful woman, who after being raped, has visions of the devil. It features extreme graphic content, like naked women, rape scenes, and an orgy with animals. This, alongside with Jeanne being mostly naked and the omnipresence of phallic imagery, will be appalling to some - although the movie never indulges in voyeuristic pleasures like other erotic movies. Still, the movie features undeniably beautiful images with a unique art style, ensuring that the colorful depictions of rape and torture not only fascinate but also highlight the rich underlying thematic concepts, like open sexuality, criticism against religion, and a social commentary about totalitarian regimes.