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Belladonna has a familiar story line, set in France in the middle ages it tells of a young girl, raped by an evil lord on her wedding night, who then sells her soul to the devil to be able to seek revenge. The similarities to the Jean D'Arc story are quite apparent in the finale. This 1973 film production is a quite unique example of the now popular anime genre, even though its animation technique is noticeably different to what is now classed as anime. A large part of this film is simply still paintings with dialogue, but they are beautiful images to cherish, and engage emotionally. When the movement of animation is applied the images are similar to the Beatles 'Yellow Submarine' film, but with the psychedelic influences ramped up 1000%. In some instances the imagery, both beautiful and sexual, become sensory overload, with every frame an artistic masterpiece.
But this review is less about the film itself, which many will either love of hate and more about the new Blu-ray and for those interested in investing in this extraordinary film. The film of course is set in France in the middle ages, and the characters have very European features, not the doe eyed anime characters we associate with anime now, but the dialogue is Japanese and of course for this release has subtitles in English. Good news is the subs are removable. There are no other subtitle options and no English dub. The dialogue sound, and its jazz / progressive rock based soundtrack, is very fine in Japanese DTS 5.1
The Blu-ray transfer is in the original 1.33:1 frame and the print is very clean and visually dynamic with no flaws. Specks do appear, but they are from the original cell animation and are not marks on the print, but they are very few, certainly less than those seen on any Ralph Bakshi animation, especially Lord of the Rings.
The extras on this Blu-ray are unfortunately very limited as material in archive would be non existent for this production, certainly no 'making of ' featurettes available, but it does have interviews with principle players in the production who talk about their lives, memories and influences making this film. The interviews are from Director Eiichi Yamamoto (27 minutes 20 seconds) Art Director Kuni Kukai whom I found the most interesting talking about his dislike as a child for people, especially after the Second World War (16.51) and Music Composer Mashahiko Satoh (27.19)
Other three extras are promotional trailers, two produced in 2016, called Red band (2.35) and green band (1.30) and finally the original Japanese trailer from 1973 which gives a better idea of the films story line.
The collectors Edition I have also contains the 20 page illustrated( by Amazon on this product page) booklet with information and history about the film which features some very fine colour stills from the animation. Six colour art cards with images from the film are also part of the collectors edition. Finally the whole set is packaged in a very sturdy cardboard box with different artwork on the front but the same artwork on the back as the actual Blu-ray.
So for a collector this is a worthy addition to anyone's film / Blu-ray library, and highly recommended .
BELLADONA of Sadness (1973) 1.33 : 1 aspect Ratio DTS 5.1 Japanese soundtrack English subtitles 1 hour 27 minute 18 seconds running time.
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NachtschattenReviewed in France on 4 April 2021
Film culte particulier des années 70
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