Belladonna of Sadness

An animated film set in medieval France. Jeanne and Jean marry in their village. By custom they owe a tax to the local lord and they cannot pay it. The castle assaults Jeanne and the couple return to the village broken. After that a presence appears to Jeanne and offers her power. She refuses at first and then accepts. She becomes known in the village as a healer, grows rich, and as her power grows the church and the lord treat her as a threat. The source is Jules Michelet's nineteenth-century book on witchcraft. The form is unusual: much of it is not moving animation but watercolour paintings panned across. The camera travels over a still image and the movement is completed in the viewer's eye. That choice was both artistic and a matter of budget. It is the last of Mushi Production's trilogy for adults. The studio went bankrupt in the same period and the film was hard to find for a long time; it was restored and re-released in 2016. Eiichi Yamamoto directed. A production that stands alone for anyone curious about the limits of animation and anyone who likes experimental cinema. Before you watch, know this: the film contains scenes of sexual violence and its visual language is explicit throughout.