Synopsis
A peasant woman is raped by the local lord on her wedding night. To take revenge, she makes a pact with the Devil himself who appears as an erotic sprite and transforms her into a black-robed vision of madness and desire.
Belladonna of Sadness
1973 ‘哀しみのベラドンナ’ Directed by Eiichi Yamamoto
Cast
Director
Producer
Writers
Editor
Cinematography
Production Design
Art Direction
Visual Effects
Composer
Sound
Studios
Country
Language
Alternative Titles
The Tragedy of Belladonna, Belladonna der Trauer, La tristeza de Belladonna, Kanashimi no Beradona, La belladone de la tristesse, Belladonna Of Sadness, Belladonna, La Belladonna de la tristesse, Печальная Белладонна, Kanashimi no beradonna, Belladone, La belladone du chagrin, Die Tragödie der Belladonna
Genres
Themes
Intense violence and sexual transgression Faith and religion Humanity and the world around us Epic history and literature violence, shock, disturbing, brutal or graphic horror, creepy, eerie, blood or gothic sex, sexual, relationships, erotic or sensual sexuality, sex, disturbed, unconventional or challenging death, profound, symbolism, philosophical or vision Show All…
Popular reviews
More-
-
In 1973, the Japanese equivalent of Walt Disney decided to adapt a 19th century book about the feminist history of witchcraft into an animated prog-rock musical about a medieval peasant girl who gets gang-raped on her wedding night and then turns to Satan for help with her revenge. This is really a thing that happened. Strange even by the impossibly high standards of Japanese cinema, the wild and exhausting "Belladonna of Sadness" was conceived by Osamu Tezuka — the godfather of manga — as the third and final chapter of Mushi Productions' Animerama trilogy (a series of explicitly adult animated films that also included erotic riffs on "Cleopatra" and "A Thousand and One Nights").
Tezuka would drop out of the…
-
this psychedelic animated musical erotica version of Lady Snowblood (also released 1973?!?!?!?) rules HARD once you get past the gratuitous rape scenes. the gorgeous watercolor animation makes the sexual violence a bit easier to tolerate than, say, the thematically-similar live-action Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) ...... still a bit icky for the all-male writers to juxtapose that trauma against a montage of erotic depictions of the ‘70s sexual liberation though, imho, even when it’s drawn that beautifully and creatively!! also, not enough revenge ....... >:(
streaming for freeeeee on kanopy (best watched dummmm stoned)
-
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.
-
-
-
CW: rape
I think this film really needs to learn what the word subtlety means because some things are a bit too obvious. And by a bit too obvious I mean the devil is a penis, the warmongering tyrant's head consists of a skull and crossbones and a vagina is represented as a flower.
Apart from the lack of any kind of nuance, the film feels completely against what the supposed message is. There are long and objectifying shots of Jeanne that linger in a creepy and perverse manor. Her empowerment comes only when the devil (A LITERAL PENIS) rapes her. The majority of the film preceding Jeanne's eventual """"empowerment""" sees her get raped multiple times by various people, beaten…
-
While it lacked thematic subtlety (the devil takes the form of a penis, a lot), it was beautiful enough in animation to smooth over that. It combined brutality and eroticism in a manner that certainly stepped over the line at times, but that aforementioned unsubtle theme was strongly anti-sexist.
-
"i want to become a horrifying woman. i want people to turn away in horror when i pass by in the street."
the firmest pillar of patriarchy is the way in which bargaining is weaponised, in which a seat at the table is meant to make you forget about how wronged you have been. a seat at the table solves nothing. it gets you in better earshot of the things they say, it might even help you understand them more. but it is very much a begrudging compromise, one that threatens no level of power and does not even glance at a structural solution to the violations visited upon you. when jeanne refuses to accept the compromise of being second-in-command…
-
To be honest, i wanted to watch this movie because the animations seemed really pretty, I didn’t know what the plot was but this movie made me so uncomfortable, i barely could watch it.
Men need to stop writing about women’s issues and traumas. The only thing you should do is listen to women.
And the people in the reviews need some self awareness. -
-
A deeply uncomfortable piece, flourishing behind the relatively thin veil of a truly gorgeous animation style and stellar set of musical numbers.
This is sooo not it. Jeanne, sweetie, I’m so sorry.
Related Films
Similar Films
Powered by Nanocrowd
