Kanashimi no Belladonna
| Belladonna of Sadness | |
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Original release Japanese B1 film poster, as released by Nippon Columbia
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| Japanese | 哀しみのベラドンナ |
| Hepburn | Kanashimi no Belladonna |
| Directed by | Eiichi Yamamoto |
| Produced by | Tadami Watanabe |
| Written by | Yoshiyuki Fukuda Eiichi Yamamoto |
| Based on |
Satanism and Witchcraft by Jules Michelet |
| Starring | Aiko Nagayama Tatsuya Nakadai |
| Narrated by | Chinatsu Nakayama |
| Music by | Masahiko Satoh |
| Cinematography | Shigeru Yamazaki |
| Edited by | Masashi Furukawa |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Nippon Herald Eiga (Japan) |
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Release date
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Running time
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86 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Belladonna of Sadness (哀しみのベラドンナ Kanashimi no Belladonna?), also known as Tragedy of Belladonna, is a 1973 feature film produced by the Japanese animation studio Mushi Production and distributor Nippon Herald Films. It follows the story of Jeanne, a peasant woman who is raped which leads to her being accused of witchcraft, and is notable for its erotic, violent, and psychedelic imagery.
Jeanne and Jean are happy newlyweds in a rural village. Their idyll is promptly shattered when Jeanne, on her wedding night, is raped in a ritual deflowering by the local baron and his lackeys. She returns to Jean terrified and in pain, and he calms her, saying, "Let us forget everything in the past". She begins to see visions of a phallic-headed spirit encouraging her to take revenge on the baron; meanwhile, the couple's fortunes rise even as famine strikes the village and the baron raises taxes to fund his war effort. Jean is made tax collector, and the baron cuts off his hand as punishment when he cannot extract enough money from the village. After another visit from the spirit, Jeanne takes out a large loan from an usurer and sets herself up in the same trade, eventually parlaying it into becoming the true power in the village.
Then the baron returns victorious from his war, and his wife, envious of the respect and admiration accorded Jeanne, calls her a witch and has her driven out. Jeanne first tries to return to the home she shares with Jean, but he refuses to open the door for her and she flees into the forest nearby where she finally makes a pact with the spirit, who reveals himself to be the devil. She is granted considerable magical powers, and uses them to lead a rebellion in the village.
Directed and co-written by Eiichi Yamamoto and inspired by Jules Michelet's non-fiction book Satanism and Witchcraft, it is the third and final film in the Animerama trilogy and the only one to be neither written nor directed by Osamu Tezuka (he left Mushi Production during the film's early stages to concentrate on his comics and his conceptual-stage contribution is uncredited). Belladonna is also of a more serious tone than the more comedic first two Animerama films. Its visuals consist mostly of still paintings panned across and are influenced by western art, such as that of Gustav Klimt, and Tarot illustrations. The film was a commercial failure and contributed to Mushi Pro becoming bankrupt by the end of the year. The film was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival.
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