Belladonna of Sadness (1973)

Starring: Nakadai Tatsuya, Takahashi Masaya, Shimegi Shigato, Nagayama Aiko, and Ito Katsuyuki. Director: Yamaoto Eiichi. Writers: Yamamoto Eiichi, Fukuda Yoshiyuki, and Jules Michelet (the book, Satanism and Witch/La Sorciere first published in 1862).

I've already covered Kaiju, Yakuza, Girl Gang/Sukeban films. One of the brightest shining omissions is Anime. Needless to say, that is a huge world of hundreds and thousands options to begin with. In keeping with the Cult film theme, I'm taking a deep dive into the endlessly bizarre and beautiful, Belladonna of Sadness. Initially, I heard of it because of one man...Nakadai Tatsuya (#NakadaiForever). He in that top tier of Japanese Actor with the Mt. Fuji heights of Tanaka Kinuyo, Hara Setsuko, and Mifune Toshiro. In boy band terms, he's the bad boy, the Bobby Brown if you will (I hope you will). Mr. Nakadai was an expert of the corrupt asshole that you still find irresistible and erotically and intensely magnetic. Once I learned he was the Devil himself, I made it a personal mission to track down Belladonna of Sadness legally. I was not lucky enough to see it at an Alamo Drafthouse as I don't live anywhere remotely close to one. Nothing can properly prepare you for this sexual, psychedelic, and challenging experience.

A young couple in Medieval France, Jean (Ito Katsuyuki) and Jeanne (Nagayama Aiko), get married but they need to pay a tax to their feudal lord (Takahashi Masaya). The young couple is poor, they sold their only milk cow but that isn't enough. The Lady interrogates Jeanne and believes she is pure and christian so the Lord then has the whole castle take turns raping Jeanne. She comes back hurt and ashamed. Luckily, the Devil knows her true desires.

The Devil tempts and seduces her in the form of a humanoid penis that gets gradually larger with each seduction until he's a Kaiju phallus with limbs. Eventually, she grows too powerful thanks to help from the Devil. The clergy and Lord imprison her but she escapes. During her time out of the village she transforms into a witch who saves the everyone from the plague via magic aka medicine. In return, she's trapped, captured, and killed for wanting power. Land and realty isn't enough, she wants the world. The fire torches her life way but her spirit lives on in the local women. Oh and this directly leads to the French Revolution, the end.

 
On paper this is a straightforward story in the vein of say, a Mizoguchi woman's tragedy, but done in a series of beautiful watercolor stills and sequences. A woman is continuously wronged by society for the sole reason of being a lower class woman. She tries and tries but doesn't succeed in the end. Her and Jean's life is an endless cycle of barely making enough to live on and maybe, pay taxes. They aren't rich so that is a punishable crime. The start of their troubles begins when they can't pay a marriage tax of ten cows. The world as she understands it is permanently shattered as she crawls home bloodied and beaten and violated. Nothing can repair this transgression. The Lord (he was first, of course) and his entourage killed her innocence and her God. We get to see this awful violation in full watercolor scope. The Lord is pointedly portrayed in all red during his assault and it's the only one we see. He is corruption in mostly flesh bag, with a fuckin skull for a head. He abuses his power at every turn with the "blessing" of the church behind his back.

The Lady's immediate response utilizes religion specifically, Christianity, to slut shame the truly innocent Jeanne. The Lord and Lady want to keep everyone in their realm under their grotesque thumbs. If religion doesn't work then the military will step in. It's a common strategy that's been used everywhere by several leaders throughout human history. This abusive practice is the easiest way to maintain that illusion of social order. The royalty is holier than thou, so it's ok for them to fuck, drink, and do whatever they feel like.

In this world, it's unclear if there's even a God. The only true supernatural presence that is confirmed is the Devil, who seems more positively ambivalent than pure evil. Which is perfectly inline with the critical nature of Michelet's Satanism and Witchcraft, where it exposes and explores the witchcraft scares in previous centuries as bullshit femmephobia. Nothing is as scary as a woman that thinks for herself.

Sexuality was the gateway into Jeanne's freedom. As the Devil continues to seduce her, he gives the exact thing that she wants power. She goes from a victim to essentially a demi-goddess. When she takes the Devil as a lover, her full potential is unleashed. Her understanding and respect of nature goes hand-in-hand with her becoming a full-blown satanic witch. She's the ultimate rebel in every sense. She rejects religion, technology, and most importantly the prestige of royalty. Everything man-made is corrupted and just wrong. The Devil showed her that embracing nature and our innate humanity is the true way to happiness. As the story moves along, the village embraces the Devil to the point that there's a playfully delightful massive orgy with everyone except the castle personnel. People partially morph into animals inter-cut with a panorama of colorful montages of random aspects of modern civilization. Poor people experiencing the bliss and sublime is the last straw and leads to her death, which she accepts since she got to finally live life to its fullest.

 
I'm not sure how to even approach the animation. It's hypnotic and constantly engrossing. This was my second viewing and I was more blown away with the overall look and style this time around. As far as I know, this is the most radically animated film I've seen (I've seen several Jiri Barta shorts for the record, if you haven't seen his work start with The Pied Piper). There's a classic saying in the animation, "Give It A Reason To Be Animated." Belladonna is almost an entirely visual story. The particular choices of using various forms of animation at different points fits in like puzzle piece to the action and moment of the story. This could be viewed without dialogue and you could still follow everything that happens. Needless to say, it's beyond beautiful and expertly economic.

Belladonna of Sadness is an unforgettable cinematic experience. Deceptively simple and endlessly mesmerizing, this is something begs to be seen by everyone. It is on Shudder and Amazon Streaming. Also, it's on Blu-Ray from Cinelicious Pics (who also put out the fantastic Funeral Parade of Roses, which may show up here in the future).