God and the Devil are all men and all men are one man. She recodes their order and rewrites their body with her sacrifice/ecstasy. Animated sex revolution phantasmagoria. The damndest thing.

or "People may want to read some symbolism into this but sometimes a wish-granting devil power phallus is just a wish-granting devil power phallus."

Visually and aurally exquisite... and exhausting. I wanted to applaud after the 200-esque psychedelic freakout. I wanted the movie to be over when it was over. Men will find the story empowering to women. Women's mileage may vary.

The Belladonna of Sadness -- the universal woman who shakes off the many ways the world oppresses and suppresses us, the false values of purity, chastity, humility, and piety, and the universal suffering all women carry on their backs, and becomes the all-powerful devil herself. Trauma, pain, sensuality, temptation, and pleasure communicated through hallucinogenic, pulsing, rainbow psychedelic watercolor. Absolutely ecstatic.

A "masterpiece" that should've stayed lost.

Definitely for the people out there who wear ascots unironically, or for people who fantasize about wearing an ascot unironically.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

64/100

Easily needs a rewatch from me, because while it's already a little tough to follow the story, while paying attention to the imagery, I was also sick while watching this one (probably not the best time to decide to watch Belladonna of Sadness). I absolutely loved the imagery; it's beautiful in every single way throughout, as well as the soundtrack, which is haunting. As for the writing of the film itself... well I can't really say. There's a lot going on with the main character; her struggles with the village and whatnot is very interesting to watch, and the direction it takes from there is oddly great. I don't think I got the full experience of this film, which is why I think I'll most likely enjoy it more on a second watch.

If you've read anything about this movie, you know the score. Pysched out, sex/rape filled Satanic proto-anime. I knew the score but I persisted.

Jeanne and Jean are young lovers in a medieval hellscape ruled over by a deathhead. When their nuptials are announced, the deathhead decides to take a whack at Jeanne. This sets force a spiral of disillusionment and despair between the two lovers. In comes dickhead Satan. He's got a dick for a head. And if you're not sure if it's a dick or not, he sticks his head in Jeanne to pleasure her. He then offers her a way out of shit existence.

There's a lot going on here. But it's all told slowly and deliberately. I know some people flip at this. I liked it visually but the overall package left me a bit cold.

I know some people complain about how much of this film isn't actual animation, but pans over still drawings. That didn't bother me much and I thought the technique was interesting for the long and tall pieces that turn scenes into sort of rolling graphic pages. I would rather look at these stylized, interesting images that most of the polished, homogenized, featureless plastic of today's CGI animation.

What I love most about it, though, is that it strikes that often-attempted, but so hard to achieve balance between feminine suffering, eroticism, and empowerment. The rape isn't sexualized, but Jeanne's power is. It's one of those rare films in which the heroine taking control of her sexualization doesn't seem staged for the male gaze.

It's a much more emotionally intelligent film than you could expect from any anime since, while taking far more advantage than most animation does of its ability to express ideas with fluid abstraction.

Psychedelic and erotic musical French animated fairytale (?) from Japan.

Psychodelic trip that goes on to show us a part of what was/is to be a woman - especifically to have a body that is desired and subverted by men in the course of history.

A body dyed red. Sacrifices for the future. A sad melody echoes. The movie ends, but the fight continues. We endure.