A Tragédia de Belladonna

In medieval France, young couple Jean and Jeanne marry, but on the wedding night, an attempt to pay the required tribute to their lord results in a group sexual assault on Jeanne. Shattered by this, Jeanne is visited by Satan in the form of a very small penis man, who offers her the power to strike back against her abusers in exchange for her soul. Jeanne initially resists, but succumbs in stages, each resulting in penis Satan becoming a bit larger and Jeanne gaining some power over the lord, but ultimately facing greater setbacks. When she is at her lowest, she gives in completely and soon must be dealt with by the lord.

The first thing to note about this film is that it is exquisitely animated. Anime pioneer Eiichi Yamamoto, who had a hand in "Astroboy" and "Kimba the White Lion", forgoes any semblance of contemporary anime style and forges a psychedelic and deeply transgressive style based in modernist European watercolors. A lot of the animation is just still watercolor paintings that the camera pans across, but there's also a fair amount of animation. It's an absolutely gorgeous film.

This provides even more power to the film's very sexual, hallucinatory and transgressive images. It's very easy to label a film this explicit as "pornography", but none of the imagery in this film is used with any intention to arouse the viewer. It's very much apiece with the story that quite deliberately does not equate the embrace of "Satan" ... in this story, the embrace of personal, anti-authoritarian power partly via sexuality ... with evil. It's a deeply disturbing film with some of the most bizarre sexual imagery I have ever seen, but I also think it's a quiet masterpiece.

When I started the film, I was lured in by its bleak narrative and erotic imagery. If it weren't for the language, Belladonna would be unrecognizable as anime, with its realistic proportions, faded colors, sexual themes, and psychedelic imagery/soundtrack. I quickly emphasized with our lead's suffering, and the allure of Satan himself when all joy and hope is dead.

Unfortunately, while the initial premise was fascinating and sensual, Belladonna lacks the depth to make it a masterpiece. There is no real development. There are no likable characters. Jean doesn't ascend from her demons. Her downfall isn't particularly evocative. Its half emotional torture porn, half stoner fuel.

The animation is also kind of bad. Heck, most of the time, you're only given stills. Some shots are beautiful, but others seem very cheap. Others are nonsensical, immature pieces of graffiti that somehow snuck into an art film.

Belladonna seems disjointed between two opposite demographics and isn't good enough for either one. I wish someone could do this story better justice. But it was an interesting movie, especially for its time. Because of a few scenes and overall unique place in animation, I'd recommend it to those who are into more "art house" film. I wouldn't to those who want strong character and narrative.

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.

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.

"It becomes apparent early on when viewing Belladonna of Sadness that this film is quite unique. Certainly the first, and possibly the only animated film that might be classified in the pinku genre. But even though the film is supposedly animated, nothing seems to be moving at first. You instead see a series of elegantly designed still drawings depicting a harmonious wedding between a peasant couple in 14th century France, as a woman sings her narration in the soulful style of a 70s rock opera. This is the film's only joyous scene, as moments later the new groom is pleading with the local land baron to reduce the marriage tax he can't afford. The baron instead decides to exercise his "droit de seigneur" with the bride. It is here, several minutes into the film, that full animation is finally used, in order to depict the rape of the virgin bride with metaphorical imagery much more disturbing than what a literal depiction of the same events could provide. A sign of things to come, as this is only the first in a series of tragic events that push this woman, through desperation, into the world of witchcraft." ...