Belladonna of Sadness

“Belladonna of Sadness” (1973) is one of the crucial films when talking about the evolution of sexuality in animation. This provoking, double-edged Japanese feature by Eiichi Yamamoto engendered a lot of admiration, as well as questions and emotions, not only in the ‘70s but also recently, when restored and released again in 2016. The New York Times, for example, called “Belladonna of Sadness” a “bewitching masterpiece”, while the popular internet platform IndieWire, focusing on independent filmmaking, said in its review that “the newly restored “Belladonna of Sadness” is 1973’s best and most disturbing animated feminist porn”.

The disquieting story of “Belladonna of Sadness” is an adaptation of Jules Michelet’s book “La Sorcière” (a history of witchcraft published in France in 1862). It tells the story of a young French peasant woman, Jeanne, who forms a pact with Satan in order to execute revenge for being raped by a group of powerful local men. The film strikes a balance (or perhaps for some it does not) between a visually expressionistic sexual scene and the narrative transformation of Jeanne from a victim to a queen of dark magic and enchantment.

Apart from its provocative and disquieting story, however, “Belladonna of Sadness” marks an important point in animation history, also for its original minimalistic animation and rather eclectic visual inspirations such as pop art, art nouveau, as well as due to musical genre or psychedelic aesthetics and, above all, the manga tradition of expressive storytelling.

We can argue about the film’s message or morals but when all is said and done, “Belladonna of Sadness” is such an original and irreplaceable part of animated history that it would be short-sighted to ignore it.