Kanashimi no Belladonna

A corrupted woman is soaked in sin and gradually torn from her soul. Her purity that was once unscathed is now an unbounded commodity. Piece by piece, she is dismantled until the only thing that’s left is flesh and blood. From the ashes of unadulterated youth, now rises something else. The transformation from beauty to grotesque is immediate. A woman is either a maiden or a witch. A sin or a sinner. An unknowing victim or an unholy perpetrator. The existence of both is morally reprehensible. Here we have the scripture of ye old storytelling embedded in every culture, every time, and in every form.

Nonetheless ... every artifice, every duality inherits a line that exists to challenge it. A tempo-spatial blip where white melds into the black – where Angels mingle with Demons, where grotesqueness is beauty, where tragedy births empowerment, where witches ARE women – explodes with a forgotten force. That coalescing blip takes form in Belladonna of Sadness (Kanashimi no Belladonna): a powerful visual enigma that mesmerizes with bizarre aestheticism and erotic storytelling (one that many will probably write off as a “deep” hentai and in the process, dismiss the work so passionately fueled by the revolutionary spirit that drives all provocative art).

Belladonna is the third and final installment in the Animerama series (adult-themed films) conceptualized by Osamu Tezuka, but due to his early abandonment of the project, it was sought through (in 1973) by Eiichi Yamamoto and produced by Mushi Production. Adapted loosely from the non-fictional musings in La Sorcière by Jules Michelet, Belladonna follows the vicious downfall of a young girl named Jeanne, and thus, her metamorphosis. Even though Belladonna takes influence from Michelet’s book, it is not a literal re-telling. The novelty of Michelet’s work, however, should be noted. La Sorciere attempted to trace the rebellions against feudalism and Medieval practices that subjugated women and peasants. Riddled with folklore, fairy tales, and religious theory, the book opened a new sympathetic vision towards the oppressed, and what eventually manifested into “witchcraft”. Belladonna is a tale about oppression, but also about revolution. What starts off as a fatalistic chain of events steeped in sexual violence and tradition, morphs into a darkly, disturbing tale of empowerment (featuring Satan symbolized as an ever-growing penis, lots and lots of other phallic imagery, and intense psychedelics visuals).

The aesthetical direction in Belladonna is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Sequences of stylistically-independent paintings that are tied by motion. Styles include Klimt-influenced artworks where the female body is the everlasting focus. The only place where precision in detail matters is on Jeanne, and partly her husband and abusers. Following in the symbolist tradition, many embodied the elements of Decadence. These paintings were full of lurid, exploitative objects that were flourishing with mystical context. Decadent art called for transgression and taboo and expressed them through dreamlike visual poetics. Belladonna adapts this with acuity. Abstract, expressionistic paintings also take hold here. The use of placement, distance, object and how they come alive, both with color and shape all reveal this. There are scenes that are built entirely on geometric progression. The painting starts at one point, transforming into a set of shapes that blooms into the eventual scenery. Kaleidoscopic backgrounds and mural-stoned-faces swell up the screen, while continuous mutations and distortions keep the atmosphere full of psychedelic vigor. It’s like a never-ending party in the 60s. The art-style is intensely experimental and frequently disorienting. The styles and influences here are endless: watercolor paintings, ink-stencil portraits, sketchbook graphics, bubbly cartoons, and the list goes on – of all the various art-styles contained in this film. Even though the film ranges in the kind of techniques it employs – many of them being direct contrasts to one another – it never hiccups, not even once. The continual change in style becomes equally as important for the story. It’s a story with centuries of sociopolitical turmoil, unveiled through centuries of art evolution on canvas. And the best part is that it’s always fluid and always flowing.

Consequently, Belladonna's art is demanding, bold, highly erotic, often-etched-imminently, and absolutely unforgiving. The shots move ever-so emphatically; scenes feel as if being drawn out right then and there. The horror here transposes itself not just as a genre, but a state, an endless feeling that seduces the senses while suffocating the mind. There are scenes comprised of simple shapes, lines intersecting, and splashes of unending red and black that are more horrific than most horror films attempting to be anything more than a gore-fest nowadays. The film functions in directional panning waves that slide from painting to painting, with minimal movement and sparse dialogue. One of the most laudable aspects was the use of motion. Films, at a very fundamental level, need to master the skill of motion; to be able to capture the mobility of ideas in a visual format. In the same way that sometimes silence speaks louder than sound, stasis expresses visual ideas more potently than systematic movement. It’s animation revised: unbridled by traditional sequential movement, materialized through motion on canvas. Stasis then becomes as important as motion. Belladonna proves this with its delicate and deliberate staging and execution.

Now really, what is Belladonna about? The aesthetics tell it all. The “how” is infinitely more valuable than the “what”. Even then, there is still plenty to bask in, narratively. Belladonna is a purely visual experience, but isolating the narrative is worthwhile. Reconnecting with the earlier synopsis, Belladonna tells the seemingly unfortunate tale of Jeanne. On her wedding night, as custom dictates, Jeanne and her husband Jean must receive the okay from the baron (through paying ridiculous monetary “gifts”). As they cannot meet the high demands set by the Baron, Jeanne is subjected to ritualistic rape by the Baron and his house of ghastly courtiers. From then onward, Jeanne continues to suffer at the hands of her time, repeatedly violated by those in power and by circumstance, she finds herself in an old-fashioned predicament: compromising her humanity. It’s not original in its premise. Tales of religious persecution, power, and transformation almost always follow a similar formula: striking a deal with the devil. Therefore, the story unfolds on a two-fold: first, on the degradation of humanity and second, on the revival of it.

What sets Belladonna apart is its perspective and thematic subversion. The apparent importance of religion, tradition, and all these concepts that arise from scripture of society all take a backseat for Jeanne’s place in the world. She becomes the singular point of relevance amongst cosmic indifference, where she comes before the judgments of the world. This is crucial for the second half of the story and the ultimate, conclusion. The perspective here is refreshing, in the ways many modern fairy tales are, especially those with a female focus. The one that immediately comes to mind is a collection of short stories by Angela Carter titled The Bloody Chamber. These tales are of the revolutionaries — the nontraditional, and those unaligned with the religious depiction of “woman”–, where through the crevices of preordained evil and sacrilegious, arises positivity in the form of empowerment and transformation. These are far more important than redemption or “survival”. It’s history, art, and humanity revisited but with the scales tipping the other way. Thus, the devil becomes a tool. Evil becomes a means to an end. The deal becomes a means to an end. The body is shown to be purely material and the spirit/soul as mere propaganda. Things that held the greatest amounts of meaning become empty remnants in the face of ultimate transformation. The most important point is that woman and witch remain synonymous. This isn’t a movement to destroy humanity, but to revolutionize it.

Jeanne makes the deal and becomes a witch. Yet, she doesn’t seek revenge in the old-testament sort of horrific way. She sets the way for the townspeople and all those that violated her to find hell in their own manner, whether it’s through hedonism, paganism, or partaking in 24/7 orgies. The Black Plague is also a thing, here (and the origins are hilarious but terrifying). Jeanne helps those struck by the plague (using various plants and concoctions) and becomes their savior. With her “help”, the villagers willingly walk on their personalized road to perdition. (Belladonna is a nightshade plant. The root was used to make medicine, but the leaves and berries are deadly. It’s named after Venetian ladies who used it to dilate pupils for striking appearances). Jeanne assumes her rightly place as the Belladonna who in the wrong doses, proves to be lethal and insurmountable. As Angela Carter reformulates the heroine/woman in modern fairy tales, “Like the wild beasts, she lives without a future. She inhabits only the present tense, a fugue of the continuous, a world of sensual immediacy as without hope as it is without despair,” we find ourselves seeing Jeanne reflected in the very same words. Jeanne descends into –what we perceive as– madness, a form of clinical hysteria from any angle. Despite that, there is something far deeper settling in her reverie: “The girl burst out laughing; she knew she was nobody’s meat.” And that very Carter-ian depiction becomes the absolute state of Jeanne.

Even with the inevitable “end” of Jeanne, the story holds true to what actualized empowerment entails: continuation. It doesn’t end with the body.

Experiencing Belladonna is very much like falling down a bottomless rabbit hole. A visceral drop where one experiences each grain of the twisted earth, swallowing wholly, their entire state of being. The dive isn’t measured. It’s freefall so fast, one almost feels like they are suspended in air, motionless. During those moments, every sensory receptor is attuned to an unknown, unearthly frequency. It’s a film designed to enthrall the senses and heighten all temporality. The kind of thing people do drugs for. Spectacularly, it achieves this for every second of its runtime. Enter this with an open mind. Belladonna knows for she is woman and witch, and both exist here simultaneously.

Overview:

My city's only arthouse theater decided to play this 1973 anime movie recently. I went with a couple buddies and it was...an experience. I will now try explain my mixed feelings on this rather unique film.

Background:

This movie is sometimes called "the lost Tezuka masterpiece" although Osamu Tezuka actually left the project quite early in production. Kanashimi no Belladonna or "Belladonna of Sadness" was written and directed by Tezuka's longtime friend and collaborator Eiichi Yamamoto. Yamamoto worked with Tezuka on Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion, as well as writing Space Battleship Yamato, the first Space Opera anime.

Belladonna of Sadness is an X-rated ... avant garde telling of a Faustian melodrama set in medieval France. The anime is loosely based on a 19th century non-fiction book called "Satanism and Witchcraft" that posits that ritual witchcraft and Wicca were created to rebel against the patriarchal rule of the Church and Monarchy. The book also prominently featured erotic art by a French artist who went by the pseudonym Martin van Maële. The anime follows the book's example by having a LOT of trippy, psychedelic eroticism that frankly detracts more often than it adds to the film.

Plot:

A poor farming couple named Jean and Jeanne are married in medieval France. However, they can't afford to pay the outrageously high "wedding tax" of their feudal lord, so the lord demands the right to gangbang Jeanne with his friends on her wedding night. As an aside, this practice was called "Droit du seigneur" and was alleged to have happened in real medieval France, although no hard evidence can be found and many historians believe it was a myth created hundreds of years later. Jeanne is emotionally devastated and her distress summons the Devil, who offers her power and revenge in exchange for her soul. Jeanne agrees at first to give the Devil her body, but not her soul. Satan accepts the offer after some truly bizarre sex and Jeanne gains the ability to spin beautiful fabric.

Jeanne is able to make enough money with her fabric to pay their lord's outrageous tax, so he makes her husband his official tax collector. However, this increase in wealth and power does nothing to improve their happiness. Jean isn't able to collect enough taxes from the peasants, so the lord cuts off his hand. Jean then becomes a miserable drunk. Jeanne is able to use her new gained powers to bewitch a greedy moneylender into giving her a large sum. She is able to give the evil lord the money he demands, but the evil lord's wife is jealous of Jeanne and plots revenge. The countess's Page slashes Jeanne's dress and the townsfolk all immediately decide to try rape her. Jean locks her out of the house and watches while the whole town rapes his wife! After Jean collected his award for "Cuck of the Year", Jeanne gets thrown in the dungeon to rot. She escapes the dungeon with the help of Satan and after reaching her breaking point, she finally agrees to give him her soul in exchange for revenge.

A plague ravages the town and many are killed. Jeanne returns to the town looking beautiful and offers a magical cure for the disease. She convinces the townspeople to rebel against the evil feudal lord and God. Jeanne even gets revenge on the Countess by charming her page into sleeping with the Countess and getting them both murdered by the lord. The lord offers to give her land and power, but she rejects these offers and says she wants "everything". The lord then has her burned at the stake in a scene reminiscent of French heroine Joan d'Arc. The worthless husband Jean finally rises against the lord, but is killed by his soldiers. The rest of the townsfolk cower in fear and Jeanne's rebellion is crushed at least for now. The story ends with French women leading the March on Versailles and stating that in France it is the women that lead revolutions. The End.

Art:

You will immediately notice that the art is NOTHING like most anime. The art in this 1973 anime actually seems to be inspired by 1960s European cartoons like Yellow Submarine from the UK and Bremen Town Musicians from the USSR. Eiichi Yamamoto is the one guy that left the theater after watching those movies and said, "This would be WAY better if everyone started fucking!" The animation is quite good for its time though and the surreal art can be quite impressive at points.

Music:

The music is often chaotic Bebop jazz. This unfortunately reminds me of Kite, the only other anime with wild saxophone solos while people bang. Occasionally though an ocarina will play accompanied by guitar and reminds me a LOT of the theme "Lonely Shepard" from Kill Bill. I spent at least 1/4th of this movie expecting a Tarantino bloodbath to occur at any minute.


Overall:

While this movie certainly had strengths like strong animation, a solid soundtrack, and a unique premise...it falls a bit short of being a masterpiece in my opinion. The trippy sex scenes generally seemed like a desperate grab for attention instead of adding to the themes of the story. If this was a minor detail I would let it slide, but they take up around half the entire movie! If you want an elitist arthouse anime with tons of porno that will kick Europeans right in the childhood...this is your anime.

Spellbound in a whirlwind of love, sex, desire, and disaster, Belladonna of Sadness is a blistering wound of emotions and vices. The nature of sin and excess; the act of wanting too much without understanding the cost. A cautionary tale of indulgence as showcased by an unnamed kingdom positioned in the Middle Ages. The unfortunate recipients of which are Jean and Jeanne, a couple young in love in a world far too cutthroat to accept the purity of their union. Their honeymoon, a nightmarish event, forever tainted by the cruel actions of an aristocrat drunk with power. Deflowered and battered, Jeanne, a victim of the ... worst kind of atrocity, is left a wilted rose in her husband's arms. A newlywed couple demoralized by the ones appointed by God to reign over them. Betrayed by those in power and emotionally abandoned by her husband, Jeanne is left to pick up the pieces. With nothing but time to keep her company—misplaced guilt far too stifling to forget, and an act of selfishness far too wicked to forgive—she searches for solace away from society's pitiful gaze. For a way to regain some semblance of self after being deprived of her womanhood.

And in this moment of weakness, desperate and defeated, whispers of vengeance caress her ear, the temptation of which becomes far too alluring to ignore. These sweet whispers are made by a demon, one conjured up by the smoldering embers of spite ignited in place of the self-pity that occupied her idle mind. A chance to strike back at the ones that robbed her is offered. A doleful plea made in the stillness of night, she succumbs to the opportunity, accepting the help of the phallic spirit that appears before her. A decision this trickster demon revels in, as he obtains another fresh prey to sink his fangs into. Her future regret providing a source of nourishment for his mischief, as the slow grooming process begins. A pact was now made with the Devil, signed with the ink of atrocities yet to come and regrets yet to manifest.

This is the world stage that Belladonna of Sadness creates, the means in which it's brought to life sharing equal importance. Watercolor brushstrokes wisp across the curvature of Jeanne's delicate frame, her fair skin left bare, absent of pigmentation. Color pencil outlines contort around landscapes, containing greenery, houses, citizens and wildlife alike; everything encased in its perimeters. Even abstract expressions aren't forgotten; moments of doubt, corruption, depravity, and envy illustrated by ink bleeding in all directions across the canvas. Brittle charcoal lines trailing right behind it to further emphasize the spread of these ideas and emotions.

Oil pastels, watercolor paint, charcoal, color pencils, graphite pencils, stencil outlines; all these utensils used for expression cascades towards a singular vision, harmoniously melding together to bring the story to life. Influenced by the art styles of Harry Clarke, Gustav Klimt, and many others, Belladonna is given a gothic-like expressionistic visual portrayal. Lengthy body postures with spindly limbs. Decorated clothing that hugs their bodies like a second skin. Every bit of it giving birth to a timeless look. Something like a rediscovered tapestry that was lost to the Dark Ages.

Even the namesake of Belladonna helps define the film. Belladonna, a toxic berry also referred to as deadly nightshade, or "bella donna" as derived from the Italian phrase meaning "beautiful woman"—essentially, a deadly beauty—was a plant used throughout history as either a cosmetic accessory or an instrument of death. The film doesn't shy away from this as well, as the Black Plague parallels are just as self-evident here as it is in films like 1957's The Seventh Seal. The biggest difference between the two being the person that serves as arbiter of judgment. Instead of Death himself casting a shadow on all those he encounters, the role is personally taken on by the Devil. He brandishes death in one hand while dangling false hope in the other. That false hope coming in the form of his future mistress-to-be, Jeanne; something we're made privy to as the story slowly unfolds. It's a fate unwillingly bestowed onto her but one she will come to embrace, for better or for worse. It's the birth of a deadly beauty, of belladonna itself.

Tasting the forbidden fruit, what started out as an earnest plea for help quickly spirals into madness, as the payment levied for her request is paid by body and soul. Jeanne gets her vengeance but at a cost that far exceeds what she had expected. Everything is brought to ruin. Her head rests in the crook of her arm, smeared tears coagulate, glistening off her cheek as she reminisces about a simpler time before her decision. But despite her best attempts to return to the beginning, her repentance falls on deaf ears. The outcome only worsens. And so she accepts her role.

We see the depravity of mankind depicted as social tact is abandoned. When people are stripped naked of society's robes and gives into their deepest, darkest desires. Jeanne becomes their catalyst to indulge. Her soul no longer in her possession. Her flesh, an instrument of pleasure. She loses all fabric of her being, and in the process, becomes a force much greater than herself. Like mother nature, she takes her seat among urban legend. A succubus. A pariah. An enchantress of the night. She is lust. A wielded weapon in Lucifer's arsenal.

She sought out revenge from those that used her only to gain the power to harm them through the act of being used. A cruel irony—God isn't the only one with a sense of humor.

It all culminates in the throws of a hedonistic free-for-all. Sex partners made of noblemen and street peasants alike. A ceaseless indulgence as bodies melts into each other, creating an ungodly form, no trace of decency surviving the transmutation. A distorted representation of sin incarnate. Sodom and Gomorrah birthed anew. The Devil's latest atrocity. He sits their satisfied, looking on at the banquet hall of the finest assortment of human perversion. And positioned squarely at the other end of the table sits his finest creation. A mother of scorn. Jeanne joins him hand-in-hand, unafraid of the consequences anymore. The road towards humanity has long been lost in the shadows as she steps closer to the realm of Gods and Demons. Female empowerment has never had a more terrifying representative. Her wrath is as unwavering as her seduction is lethal. And this is what we're left with.

There isn't a happy ending here. Just another chapter where mankind loses. Whether it serves as a sobering reminder of humanity's inevitable self-destruction or just a matter-of-fact depiction of death and sin with parallels of the Great Plague, it's up to you to take what you will from it. As for me, it's a fascinating film that I always find myself revisiting. Each recounter rekindling my love for it or gleaning something new to cherish. It may not have been a commercial success, but as an artistic statement, its efforts were admirable, sustaining a legacy for all those it has gone on to influence.

And the award to the most underrated anime of all time goes to a movie produced and realised in 1973, as part of a trilogy by the Manga God, Osuma Tezuka, who leave the project. Kanashimi no Belladoona is amovie that the 99,9% of the anime fandom never heard any about. It's really difficut to found it on internet, and that's without subtitles.
But it's a shame. Anime creators like Kuhiko Ikuhara, Utena and Penguindrum's creator, has admitted the influence of this movie. So, why is this film so unknown?
First of all, it's not a typical movie. It's an avant-garde movie, something you will notice just ... saying the animation and art style. Forget the formula big eyes, small nose, the charecters are drawn here in a more european look-alike. The colors maybe brillaint and vivid in some scenes, or depressing in others, following the story and the sensations the movie show. The story takes place in the Middle Ages, in France, and the historical portrait is really accurate.
It's the story of Jeanne, a young woman who got the bad luck to born female and poor, and how she gets power, while the lords call her a witch, show us the oppressive situation that women has to live in that era. Searching for freedom and power, Jeanne become more and more an outcast fom the society that mistreat her, and build up aimge of a powerful, terryfing woman, a witch. The social criticize is just brillaint.
Yeah, there's sex in this story. We see an evolution, since the sex as weapon to oppress people that the Milord uses, til the sex as a way to break free, gain power or joint a soulmate.
With or without sex, Kanshimi no Belladonna is a movie that deserves more recognocition for explore themes as feminism, social hipocrisy, the use of religion as a way to oppress the population, and other ways too, and sexuality.

This is nothing groundbreaking, nothing that will change your world, but it is a fun little psychedelic trip. The few iconic scenes alone, such as her rape early on, leave enough that it is enjoyable even if it is a bit lacking in substance.

The art here is interestingly animated. The colors are always interesting to watch, and the animation mostly manages to be coherent despite the psychedelic nature. It is not always especially fluid, and I think that is what it has the hardest time balancing in a way that is totally watchable. I liked the art the most when the fluidity was best, but ... it is still nice to look at a lot of the time when it pauses, especially on any beautiful looks of Jeanne. I like the disparity between Jeanne's beauty and everybody else; it lends a real power to her character development.

Jeanne's character as a typically frightfully powerful woman is interestingly played out here - she has a downfall not once, but twice! Jeanne's inability to rely on her husband or anyone at all, despite helping them out, makes her a nice tragic character in these downfalls. The baron is all right for an evil role, especially with how he is drawn, but his wife seems to be an especially weak character, suffocating story and enjoyment any time she is present.

The story is weak, and not because it leaves you guessing, but rather because it just cannot be told enough with the focus on the art. Since the art does spend a lot of time in psychedelic mode, taking minutes to flesh out basic ideas, it cannot really play up aspects of the story that it could otherwise. This also means that you are left guessing about a lot of aspects of the story.

The sound is not amazing, but is pretty much always enjoyable, especially if you like typical hard rock and psychedelic rock sounds. This spends more time sounding like early Deep Purple, but it also manages to sound like early Pink Floyd too. At the end it even adopts a sound like Ecstasy of Gold, but in a more Japanese style. It never excels in any of these modes, but it is never bad in any of them either, and nearly always compliments the art and story well

Overall, this is a rather "indulgent" work to watch, rather than something whose story or action you can simply sit back and let overawe you. If you are bored of typical anime and manga, however, this might be a nice little indulgent break.

Rape Porn. Skip.

It draws you in with beautiful art, composition, and music, only to keep showing abuse over and over again in that same “beautiful” style. It tries to be something it’s not.

It’s nothing but the glorification of sexual violence — not for the sake of the plot, not for character development,

but simply the creators wanted to show it.

A waste of not only your time, the character designer and all of the artists working on it but also my energy that is being ragebaited to write this review. Story is your average man going "women = sorrow = artistic value up by 1000", we never ... find out anything about Jeanne except her pleasure points and the color of her nipples.

Psychedelic shitshow that sexualises sexual violence and abuse towards women. I think I made a mistake watching this because Osamu Dezaki was involved and Tatsuya Nakadai voice acted in it, lesson learnt. It's supposed to be about sexual liberation but the art is crude and brutally exploitative. The creator of this movie were probably a bunch of men with no idea the nuance of the experience of woman and their sexuality. Really unique art and watercolours used, really some of the frames were gorgeous. But tacky and gaudy execution.

I rarely write reviews, i just hate this movie so much i had to write one.

The rest of these reviewers need to go back to primary school to develop some critical thinking skills.

This film is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. The story it portrays takes the typical "witch" folklore and turns it on its head. What's more, the breathtaking original soundtrack takes the viewer by the hand, and guides them through each of Jeanne's defining moments. The audience gets a representation of the emotions she's experiencing at the hands of her village, and has no choice but to feel empathetic towards who she chose to become in order to protect herself.

Other reviewers will tell you that the ... erotic elements of the film do not live up to their expectations, or that they're too violent or graphic. Honey, that's the point. Jeanne's story is one of bloodshed, and it simply cannot be told in any other way. This is the most honest form of storytelling that the film could've chosen. Anything else would be discounting her story for the approval of the masses.

The art itself is so fluid and seminal that it evokes the liveliness we see in Jeanne- her desire to live despite the manmade horrors she is subjected to. Not to mention the character design, which breathes so much life into each character while grounding them in the historical setting.

Lastly, the pacing of the story is perfect; as if the viewer was reading a storybook, the film advances each plotpoint efficiently. I was on the edge of my seat while rooting for Jeanne's upheaval.

Everything about this film is perfect. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is probably just scandalized by the honesty of the storytelling, and not willing to admit that Jeanne was just an everywoman who did what she had to for those she loved. That's just it- there's a bit of Jeanne in all of us, and if that scares you, that means the film did its job.

[SPOILER FREE REVIEW]
First of all, I apologize for the bad English.
Kanashimi no Belladonna is what happens when hentai becomes art. The erotic scenes, here, aren't just sex. Belladonna of Sadness is a real journey through the misogynist universe of Christianity, exploring every single detail of the suffering of women in a sexist society in the most beautiful way that is possible.

Story: 10/10

The story isn't some Texhnolyze-like complex plot, but it's as sensitive and brainy as. The story follows Jeanne, a christian woman in a truly medieval European scenery (not like Nanatsu no Taizai or Meine Liebe, where there's no representation of the poor people's suffering ... by the abusive governments and famine), that wants to get married with a poor guy, but is impeded by the class prejudice, and then get abandoned by him. In the night which Jeanne was supposed to marry, she's raped by some demoniac entity and, therefore, she has no outlet for her awakened libido. The story, like I already said, isn't used to pornographic purposes, but it's a way to report the rape questions, the oppressing structure of marriage, the sexist nature of the religion, the unfortunately very common victim blaming and the sexual freedom of women, which is restricted by the christian society.

Art: 10/10

The overview of the plot is kinda fantastic, but it can get greater. The story isn't only told by the dialogues and events. It's told by the art too.
The animation is a surrealistic-like, semi-static, very beautiful and meaningful art. Some details improves a lot the story, and I can't even imagine the work it demanded.
Looks like some drawn poetry, an autistic and eccentric unknown vision of the reality, an artistic way to view the hurt. It's the greatest art I ever seen in anime.

Sound: 10/10

Even the sound here is, someway, feminist. The musics reports the sexism in every small act of the daily life, and if you understand Japanese, the experience can be even greater.

Character: 9/10

If I say that, in 1 hour and 29 minutes of pure surrealistic art, the director developed a three-dimensional character, would you believe? So watch it. Jeanne is a god tier character of all-time movies.
Each character represents some group of people which is involved in prejudiced relations, and to watch it is to get more empathic.

Enjoyment: 10/10

It's outstanding. There's three ways to enjoy or not the movie:
1. Appreciating the humanist messages and denunciations of this masterpiece;
2. Appreciating the not-so-satisfactory pornographic scenes like a masturbation-addicted guy;
3. Depreciating the more-than-coherent critic that the movie make to your religion, being a close-minded and limited person.

But, in all these ways, it's hard to watch Belladonna of Sadness, and it's good: the movie transmitted to you the feeling it has and is.

Overall: 9.9/10

It's a journey through the sexist society of Christianity. An unique experience. A fucking (haha) masterpiece.

"The Belladonna of Sadness" is quite literally that - sadness. It's an estetically pleasing and abstract movie about a woman who lost everything dear to her due to her tragic fate and bad decisions in life.

If this kind of artistic movie were to be made today, most ordinary anime fans would absolutely hate it. Why? Because of the way it was made. It is almost completely made of moving drawings. In my opinion drawings are amazing though and really express the characters. Another thing that surprised me is the use of singing in telling the story. I don't usually like that kind of thing, but ... here it was very welcome.

This film definitely isn't for everyone. It is very slow-paced and its main themes are depressing and heartbreaking. I was blown away by how emotionally heavy all the events were. There are also many sexually explicit scenes which weren't all that necessary. I didn't like those whatsoever, especially since they were animated in such a disturbing way.

To tell you the truth, I don't think you should watch this one before bed because you will be scarred for life. All in all, the movie was fine. I gave it this score only because of its art. Other components it was made of, however, definitely weren't my cup of tea.

Genuine shite, skip this one. If you thought this movie had anything meaningful to say about its themes (rape, sexual abuse, etc.), you'll be disappointed, it's just torture porn the whole way through. Good music, but that's about it. The art is nice, but relies way too much on stills. Hated it so much everyone who worked on this is on my shitlist now, and I will personally judge anyone who recommends this to me

This might be the single worst movie in human existence, no joke. Is your fun in life watching someone get raped, then sexualized in the same breath? If so, then you'll ... love this. At least this will be a good litmus test to quickly spot the people you should stay away from.

If I have to summarize the movie in one sentence, it would be to describe it as a glorified rape fantasy made by disgusting people that should probably be put on a list somewhere

I am seriously shocked that this movie has such a low ranking. This film is more of an art film than a japanese animation film -ok, I guess you noticed it from the beginning of the movie-, thus, you better stop ranking this film according to the usual way of giving a score to an anime. This film certainly lacks of a deep story, and the character development is quite poor, but don't be mislead cause this film wasn't meant to show a great story. The animation and somebody other technical characteristics are what wey are supposed to put our eyes on, and if.somehow you've ... failed to notice that most psychedelic films won't get anywhere, you should at least try to focus on the art of this one.

This is basically a moving picture, but also not. Sometimes the animation is very good and sometimes it looks like the creators just gave up and just have stills. The art is mostly the only good part, but then there was no need to make a film, just make a bunch of paintings... the music was alright. I do praise the art but it really feels like Jeanne only has two facial expressions, which is odd when it juxtapositions her empowerment/orgasm and her humiliation/rape.
Mostly the film feels gratuitous with its violence against women. There is no need for so much rape, murder, and brutalization of ... random women and closeups of their genitals. There is a whole scene where it's just animated sex and rape of random women all together in a circle on Jean's hair; it feels almost like the creators are getting off to it. I do like when films bring up social issues but this film doesn't do anything with the social issues it brings up. It's just a miserable 90-minute-montage of Jeanne being humiliated, raped, and murdered, that happens to also have pretty visuals.

Loosely inspired by Jules Michelet's Satanism and Witchcraft, a fictionalized history of medieval witchcraft in Europe, Eiichi Yamamoto's cult anime Belladonna of Sadness strikes a perfect balance between midnight-movie enchantment and arthouse sophistication. The plot follows two recently married peasants, Jean and Jeanne (Aiko Nagayama and Katsuyuki Itô), as they deal with the aftermath of Jeanne's rape by a local baron (Masaya Takahashi) and his henchman by right of prima nocta. Jeanne eventually makes a Faustian bargain with Satan (Tatsuya Nakadai), who appears to her in the guise of a playful demonic phallus, which initially gives her vast social power, but ultimately breeds tragic consequences ... for the couple.

For all its wonderfully gonzo WTF moments, as when the diminutive, phallic Satan slowly grows in stature as Jeanne strokes him, there's also an underlying stately melancholy to the proceedings. The sadistic punishment of Jeanne's body is disturbingly ambivalent, both sensual and sinister, as she welcomes and resists her repeated onslaughts in equal measure. This dualism reflects the film's nuanced view of medieval witchcraft as both a harbinger of feminism and an example of sexual decadence, an act of social transgression that challenged medieval moral and power structures by deliberately embracing what society viewed as an illicit and evil form of behavior.

This cult anime strikes a perfect balance between midnight-movie enchantment and arthouse sophistication.

The film's visuals consist mainly of panning shots of sumptuously painted tableaus, frequently enlivened by startling movements (both sudden and fluid) in unexpected areas of the mise-en-scène. The animation is decadently expressionistic, inspired by works from the last millennium of European art, particularly the sinuous lines and dark eroticism of Aubrey Beardsley, Gustav Klimt, and Egon Schiele. The scenes depicting war and plague exude a particularly hallucinatory quality; we see the plague literally eating away at the foundations of medieval society, as cathedrals and other monuments of feudal power dissolve into formless wisps of smoke and specters.

Belladonna of Sadness nevertheless reflects a uniquely Japanese id, as evidenced by such touches as Jeanne and Satan's lovemaking session, where her hair flows in the ether like the tentacles of an octopus in the ocean. Such elements, along with Masahiko Satoh's incredible psychedelic soundtrack, connects Jeanne's liberation struggle against the authorities of medieval Europe with Japan's contemporary political and social unrest. The visual excesses reinforce the film's underlying attack on the repressive banality of conventional political rule. Jeanne's extravagant sexuality has no labor value in a medieval society that relies on the economic exploitation of the peasant masses; it thus functions as a criticism of the oppressive materialism of a world supposedly dedicated to spiritual values. Embracing evil is her only way to achieve sovereignty in a world where God has become a tool of repression.

Jeanne rebels against God as the spiritual embodiment of the patriarchal state that violated her in the form of the baron and his court. This follows Michelet's reading of witches' covens as an early example of popular rebellion against the authoritarian state that would culminate in the French Revolution. Jeanne is a forerunner of the equally liberated Liberty Leading the People, Eugène Delacroix's topless embodiment of the women (in Michelet's conception) who led the populist revolutions that shook Europe throughout the 19th century. And yet, it's a very phallic Satan that endows Jeanne with her growing social and political agency during her rise and eventual fall from the pinnacles of power. If this attempt to link medieval witchcraft with the modern women's liberation movement ultimately comes off as a bit perfunctory and confused, the effort is nevertheless emblematic of the film's largely successful effort to deliver a beautifully trippy mindfuck with some philosophical depth.

Critic Review by Oleg Ivanov - slantmagazine

Original Source: http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/belladonna-of-sadness

This is an odd one, and I fell asleep for a bit towards the middle. Basically, an experimental animation about a woman who finds liberation through sex and inspires a revolution among the people by showing them to indulge in and accept their sexual desires. The problem is that doing so is combined with her accepting a devil penis, so indulging in sexuality is also connected to evil symbolism. Eventually, the patriarchy comes and ends the party and some pictures of women revolutions are shown to let us know that it's meant as an empowering film. If it's supposed to be empowering, why have her ... be raped by the source of her power? Weird choice. (OK, so it waited for her to say yes, but if that were a person any decent person would have stepped in and said "Nah, tho.")

The art was mostly still, and it was sometimes gorgeous. Animation and color changes were usually used symbolically to show how liberated and free the characters were. Characters exposed to sex got specially colorized, the already powerful ruling class was always colorized. That sort of thing. It's certainly unique, but it doesn't stand as a big sign that less animation is a special statement or anything.

Don't be tricked by a pretty face and what sounds like an interesting plot description; this movie is dull as paste.

You'd think with such harrowing plot points that the story would gripping and intense but the way its told is so unbearably slow and with such pretentious self aggrandizing that even the most dire circumstances become grim monotony.

The art can be incredibly beautiful in snapshots but those snapshots are sparsely sprinkled through very minimally animated sections, infinitely looping scenes that go on forever, and outright still images. You'd really get the whole art experience of this just looking at a collection of screenshots. I'd honestly ... say that's worth it, the art style really works when it works. The problem is it doesn't like getting up and working.

All in all, save yourself some time. Surely there has to be a more fun art-house style anime out there.

Based on the Novel, La Sorciere by Jules Michelet.

Also a disclaimer, This is an X-rated film that children should steer clear from.

Let me preface by saying that this is The most unique and weird movie I've ever seen. Why that is you ask? Simply because it's filled with trippy acid visuals, A very novel and psychedelic approach to storytelling that I've never seen and it actually has minimal animation too. What I mean by that is most of the movie is just pictures that convey stuff. Yet I still think this movie managed to engage me as a viewer and I was not bored ... at any moment. It has a very Avante Garde vibe (If you're not familiar with this term, It basically means that it shows events and depicts them in a very unorthodox manner, different from conventional means). This type of storytelling may not appeal to everyone but it certainly has it's charm.

Keep in mind, This movie is a very adult oriented movie. It's basically a feature length sexual innuendo of a movie, while on paper that sounds very bad no? But the execution here is nothing short of amazing. I seriously think this is a marvel of animation and everyone should watch this atleast once.

It follows the Tragic story of young woman named Jeanne, What follows in her life is nothing short of earth shattering. A very gruesome movie that does not hold back in showing what will happen, A very bold approach by the director. I was left disgusted, happy yet satisfied by the end of it. To make me feel all of that, within a span of 86 minutes is a sign of a good movie.

Watch this if you want a unique one of a kind experience, A very thought provoking movie that seems filled with sexual stuff but is more than meets the eye.

What shocked me the most is that there was an empowering message for Women at the end of it.

Seriously a good watch, Would recommend if you can stomach the gore and sexual imagery. Definitely not a kiddie friendly movie.

Can good art be made in bad taste?

Garish pastels, painted in splotchy water colour; violent pornography devoid of any traditional semblance of eroticism; an overbearing psychedelic soundtrack; still images in lieu of fluid animation.

Belladonna of Sadness is a weird movie.

The film, known as Kanashimi no Belladonna in Japanese, is probably more renowned within arthouse circles than it is with animation buffs, and it's easy to see why. This is not a feel good nostalgia-fest a la Ghibli or Disney. This is - in the purest sense - adult animation.

The film revolves around Jeanne, a peasant woman. Early on, Jeanne is gang raped by her village's ... royalty as payment for permission to marry. Her would-be husband then rejects her, and Jeanne turns to dark magic as a means for vengeance.

It isn't an easy watch, and it's quite clear that it wasn't intended to be; everything in the film is meant to offend, disturb, or disorient the viewer. The only beauty comes form Jeanne herself, who is constantly brutalized.

So what's the film's appeal? Why watch something so confrontational and antagonistic? The easy answer is because it's a one of a kind experience. You simply aren't going to see another film like this, and there is a certain quality that comes with rarity.

An answer that is more difficult to properly articulate, but probably more valid, is the inherent beauty that arises despite the ugliness the viewer is bombarded with. Jeanne laying naked in a flower bed during a brief moment of peace, or her final confrontation with the king, standing empowered and defiant. These scenes will embed themselves in your mind.

That being said, this is a flawed film. It's antiquated, the phrase "of its time" seems ridiculously accurate here. It's also a niche film, but doesn't satisfy many of the criteria its intended audiences may look for: its stilted, unmoving images and adult themes alienating the traditional animation crowds and the fact that it's animated at all being a point of derision for serious arthouse fans.

But something as different and strange as Belladonna of Sadness is bound to find fans. That's why I recommend it despite its flaws. I didn't love it, but I won't soon forget it. It's something I'd like to own and look at and appreciate despite its ugliness, maybe because of its ugliness and the beauty that's hidden in there. You just have to look for it.

Provacative, surreal, and psychedelic, this is a film unlike anything I've seen before. The artstyle, sometimes muted, washed with watercolor dripping down the screen, and other times loud with vivid reds and greens that pop out at the viewer, is as beautiful as it is haunting. The animation, minimal at best, is slightly choppy but surprisingly very fluid during very specific scenes. It all feels purposefully done, as if to make those scenes stand out even more than the others. The music also serves a very large role, other than the instruments helping to convey the tone of the scene, often the singer will serve ... as a dual narrator, as if to spell out the melancholy of the main character as well as the crossroads at which she stands.

This isn't going to be a movie for everyone. I'm going to get that right out of the way first and foremost. This is an arthouse film which employed some very experimental techniques at the time, ones which Toei Productions would later employ when they coined the term "ga-nime" (an extremely niche and often overlooked style of production which was unpopular and never wide spreading). However, at the heart of Belladonna of Sadness is an experience which reminds me of an emotionally charged, more narratively driven Angels Egg (mostly in its execution, but also religious imagery). If you've seen that film, you'll understand how each scene flows into the next with an almost dream-like fever, but that the story is mostly up for interpretation. I'd argue that the message and the story of Jeanne (the main character of Belladonna of Sadness) and her downfall is very straightforward despite its surrealism.

The story starts with a marriage, but after the lord demands more taxes than the husband can pay, his lady proposes that the virgin wife have her purity tainted. After that, nothing is the same for Jeanne as her life spirals after being reduced to an artform for the eyes of lustful men. One criticism I see often is that there's a romanticized depiction of her and every assault she suffers, however, I'd argue that depiction is strongly symbolic to how she is viewed vs how she views herself. During the latter half of the movie after she makes a deal (won't spoil it), her body is like a temple, but spirals in many scenes to be this twisted, unholy mass of flesh. And yet, despite all this, one thing I loved about her is that she was still willing to help others even when her cynicism and emptiness became like posion.

I wouldn't call this a love story. I wouldn't even call this a story of revenge. I don't say this often because I feel the term has become synonymous with certain unsavory women who's extremism has become laughable and reduced to a caricature of what the movement stood for, but this movie has a strong feminist message. I could carry on about the meaning of the phallic imagery throughout, or even her face transposed over the other women in the crowd at the end, but this review is already long. I will say as a closing, however, that it's the impact of the story of Jeanne which inspires me, and why I love the ending so much.

TLDR; if you enjoy morality tales laced with tragedy and experimental anime, this might be for you—but if you're not enjoying it after about 30 minutes, then drop it

I was intrigued to watch this , hearing the studio apparently went bankrupt producing this. Well, that and the beautiful art. But would I recommend this to a fellow anime lover? No.

Apart from the beautiful watercolor art, the story lacks character. Maybe that's what it was meant to be, when we stare across the walls of art gallery , we do not know half of the story displayed. Rather it evokes strong emotion according to our persona and past. While movies can be a great medium to be sad, happy, inspired, scared- the one thing it should not be is stressful. Watching this ... felt like swallowing a cup of bitter medicine, I remember having to pause every 10 minutes because it gave me a headache .

But the amazing art, the symbolism, the better than average sound- made this a digestible experience and I may find myself rewatching parts of it when I am older and more mature. But right now , it caused me too much stress, I can understand why it was a huge flop (besides being such a highly X rated film) .

All in all, for fellow artists, it is something to watch once and archive, never to touch again for years. But no matter what, I do not plan to watch it again, because it haunts me in a way horror movies could not. It haunts my soul and mind. Belladonna of Sadness, thank you and f*** you for your time.