See ya.
[quote]Also Known As:
Belladonna (International: English title)
The Belladonna of Sadness (Alternative English title)
Color: Color (Eastmancolor)
Awards: 1973 Nominated Golden Berlin Bear Eiichi Yamamoto Berlin International Film Festival
The third of the adult-oriented anime trilogy by Osamu Tezuka and Mushi Production, following 'A Thousand and One Nights' and 'Cleopatra'. An avant-garde art film based on French historian, Jules Michelet's book "La Sorcière" (the title of the English version is "Satanism and Witchcraft"). Called "Anime Romanesque" in those days. Set in a farming community in medieval France. A sad story of a woman named Jeanne, who sold her body and soul to the devil for living with her beloved husband, Jean. Features the images drawn by illustrator, Kuni Fukai, and produced by an experimental method of using lots of still images and animating the illustrations. The images full of eroticism, like psychedelic wet dreams, are artistic and beautiful. Directed by Eiichi Yamamoto. The art by Kuni Fukai. The animation director is Gisaburo Sugii.
Considered one of the greatest japanese animation, Eiichi Yamamoto and Osamu Tezuka's "Kanashimi no Belladonna" is the overtop work of the first japanese anime revival, deeply influced Hayao Miyazaki and other later animation makers, it's also the best cooperation between Yamamoto and Tezuka, these two greatest animators in the world. I'm really happy that I got the whole trilogy, Senya ichiya monogatari (1969), Kureopatora (1970) and this, the limited version was appeared a few weeks ago in china, and only 2 days they were sold out in my city!!! :shock: I was very very lucky that I grabbed one before they were gone. :lol:
IMDB User Comments: splendid visuals, anticipating Miyazaki. Disney it ain't!
Loosely based on the nineteenth-century classic "The Witch" by historian Jules Michelet, "Belladonna" tells the story of a young "everywoman" in a brutally repressive and exploitative feudal society; in her powerlessness she is gradually driven to ancient superstitions and satanic practices, and then accused, tortured and executed for witchcraft. This storyline provides for a pageantry of sado-erotic scenes. "Belladonna" hovers uncomfortably on the edge of pornography but the film is saved, and viewer bewitched, by the incredible wealth of imaginative visual flourishes. Yamamoto's style in this medieval story hovers between classical Japanese landscape painting and twentieth-century underground comics (western style and manga), conjuring up, with accomplished technique, his dark fantasies. Think of Disney's Fantasia, but with more visual variation of style, and dedicated to the themes of lust and cruelty. "Belladonna" is a very early masterpiece of Japanese anime, anticipating Miyazaki by more than two decades.
http://www.pelleas.net/dbman/db.cgi?db=wmt&uid=default&ID=199&view_records=1
The third and last of the Musi Pro Animerama films. An adaptation of French historian Jules Michelet's novel of the story of Joan of Arc, La sorci鑢e, the salient feature of this film is the utterly unique way in which it was animated using a blend of still illustrations and full animation. Intended for 'art house' venues rather than a more general audience like the first two Animerama films, Belladonna as a result is a much more sophisticated and ambitious film than the first two films, and its unprecedented and unforgettable visual style imparts a vastly different impression. This film was made to show that it was possible to break free of the Disney full-animation mold that had enslaved the industry, and in this sense it is revolutionary. Unfortunately it languished critically and with audiences as a result, and sadly no film afterwards seems to have carried on Belladonna's legacy. In the film, the distinctive illustration style of illustrator FUKAI Kuni is brought to life in a way that no other artist's work has been brought to life in a full-length animated film, blending his actual illustrations of the characters with incredibly imaginative animation that seems to ooze from the images themselves. The man responsible for this bold approach, SUGII Gisaburo, did a marvelous job of bringing these pictures to life, choosing what to use as a still illustration, when to switch to full animation, and how to make it seem natural. The director Yamamoto in turn handles the human tragedy played out by this visual phantasmagoria with his usual good dramatic sense. The quirky folk-rock soundtrack also contributes to the film's rather medieval and otherworldly yet stylishly modern atmosphere. Overall this is truly unique film with artistic vision and an adult sensibility lacking in the first two films, with all their TEZUKA-style bathos and childish comedy. It is, however, curiously neglected even in Japan, where the first two films are much more well known. From an artistic standpoint Belladonna is their unquestionable superior, but people probably still don't know what to make of it. It's a shame, because this is one of the most original of all anime films.[/quote]
