Kanashimi no Beradona

You will see things become phallic you didn't even know were phallic.

One of the greatest animations ever made, a surreal psychosexual epic centered around the narrative of a woman trapped in an brutally oppressive society finally finding liberation and sexual empowerment by embracing the supposed 'evils' of nature and paganism. 70s excess at its finest, striking images of shape-shifting orgies and vaginal violation set against political commentary praising revolution and rebellion.

An animated acid trip about a woman who is driven to such lengths of suffering by an oppressive feudal society and Satan in the form of a giant red penis that she becomes a witch and casts everybody into the throes of a hedonistic fuckfest. God, do I wish I'd seen this in college at a party with a sack of weed.

Demented proto-hentai psychedelia with an amazing soundtrack. The art, which is occasionally animated, looks heavily influenced by symbolism painters of early 1900s and in turn maybe influenced yoshitaka amano & clamp - but sometimes it looks like doodles from an 8th grade notebook. Story is mostly a reminder of how miserable it is to live under despotic, tyrannical rule... especially for women. Oh, and a snail has sex with a clam...at least twice. Did I mention the music was amazing.

A very interesting experimental film that left me feeling conflicted. I'm glad I watched it and while I enjoyed it for the most part I don't think I'll ever watch it again.

Gets the full score for mood - it's a masterpiece of psychedelic animation set to an appropriate soundtrack. On the downside, neither the style nor the treatment of the story are all that original, and that shady Japanese tendency to eroticize rape and female suffering is particularly strong here, but in retrospect I see these flaws as a matter of naive art; after all, everything about this (including the sexploitation) is appropriated from western culture. It's still beautiful for what it is.

It's trippy, psychedelic-looking, heavily themed of sex, seduction and submission, and has several scenes of animated dancing phalluses. Those are the positives. It's also long, slow, pretty hard to follow in Japanese with EN subtitles, and the incomplete "animation" (often just scrolling still drawings) is not the most riveting. I soon gave up on the plot and just spaced out to funky drawings while cleaning the house. Worthy of an account on DeviantArt but too difficult for 2 hours' attention.

Milestone in history of animated films that no one seemed to notice.

2024-11-15: Trippy, grotesque, beautiful, but doesn't really have a narrative

Absolutely unique and quite successful animation style. Graphic, phallic, rough, and symbolic.

Masterful animation and great music. Quite an acid trip. If only there would be less penises.

The explicit imagery is very much apiece with the story that quite deliberately does not equate the embrace of "Satan" ... in this story, the embrace of personal, anti-authoritarian power partly via sexuality ... with evil. It's a deeply disturbing film with some of the most bizarre sexual imagery I have ever seen, but I also think it's a quiet masterpiece.

If ever censors should have intervened

8???????????

rvw. loved the art and music, often psychedelic. loved the animation style, often still-frames. felt like a metaphor for 60s sexual/spiritual/drug awakenings mixed into real medieval shit and even that french revolution ending i've been wondering if it's true lol. one of the most fucked up erotic sin movies i'll ever see

Nakadai sobre esse filme: “Sou ator há muito tempo, mas nunca pensei que um dia interpretaria um pênis”. Animação psicadelicamente deslumbrante com uma pegada anarcafeminista contra o poder vigente, mais especificamente contra a realeza francesa, o final é soberbo com as netas das bruxas queimadas no front da Revolução Francesa. Box Versátil Caça às Bruxas no Cinema Volume 2.

I'm not one for anime but this was legit insane.

First and foremost, it looks very much like an early working version intended for producers who might finance the final project if they like it. There is very little animation, it's mostly stills or camera panning over still images, and NO, it doesn't work as a technique in this case. There are a few psychedelic animated sequences somewhere in the middle and second half that are really top notch, but the rest is simply inflicting. Well, I'll give it some points for the kinkiness.

There's not much to the plot in this flick, but it's conveyed in a beautiful orgy of cock so I can't bring myself to hate it.

Trippy, sad, and full of rape. Belladonna of Sadness is a weird experiment that works due to its creator's vision and talent. Its animation is closer to what nowadays we would call a motion-comic. Colours, shapes, characters bleed and form together to create new impressions and ideas.

Jeanne: "Everything. The entire world. All of it."

Most artful and mindblowing hentai ever

This is a true product of the early 70's. A time when experimentation had become the norm. Psychedelic drugs gave way to hard drugs. Hippies got hit with reality and the whole peace and love schitck gave way to hard, real, animalistic behavior and dishonorable motives. Someone with a fried brain took a bunch of coke and drew a bunch of pictures of penises and still images. Might have been a good idea at the time, but this movie kinda blows. It's a shame that their's a good story underneath.

About what you'd expect from a movie where Tatsuya Nakadai voices a devil-penis.

Although the animation is some of the simplest I've seen in a film, it's also some of the most impressive. I'm a sucker for psychedelic animation, but it's also the simple colour schemes that perfectly inform the mood of each scene, as well as the stunningly romantic design of the main character (you can tell the animators love looking at women). The story is traditional, but often involves zany moments to make the most out of the animation and the overwhelming impact it has.

I'm not sure this film provides much insight into sexual assault, particularly as the style is so distancing. However, the novelty of it seems to be enough. I've honestly never seen anything like it before and I there isn't anything that I can really compare it to for reference.

In expressing the full emotional gamut of the unity of the sexual with the spiritual, and the name even hints at it, Belladonna of Sadness unites beauty with the profane - the content still finds fresh psychological buttons to push. So the animation itself goes beyond simple elegance: it is palpable, immediate, and often the correct definition of scandalous - which in my opinion, is in its favor. If you've ever responded verbally to a microaggression, this film isn't for you.

35. İstanbul Film Festivali - Fitaş.

I can't but think of this as a variation on a somewhat obscure Russian short of a few years earlier [The Glass Harmonica]; only with economic politics replaced with the sexual. Some annoying music & a length that seems very stretched even for its short run time bring it down, but the animation does impress at times.