Belladonna Of Sadness @ Imaginaria 2017

At the next edition of Imaginaria – International Animated Film Festival, there will be a special screening of Belladonna of Sadness, made in 1973 by Japanese director Eiichi Yamamoto.

> OPENING SCREENING MONDAY, JUNE 21

Freely based on the essay “The Witch” by Jules Michelet (originally published in 1862), a French writer, historian, and teacher, Belladonna of Sadness is an extraordinary visual psychedelic journey characterized by pastel colors alternating with brighter ones. The film, presented in so-called “limited” animation, is composed almost entirely of still frames and clearly draws from tarot cards and Western art, particularly inspired by the paintings of Gustav Klimt, but also by the works of Egon Schiele and Odilon Redon, as well as the Pre-Raphaelite and Symbolist styles.
The film, decidedly avant-garde for its time, was unfortunately a major commercial failure upon its release, contributing to the production company’s bankruptcy towards the end of 1973. In 2009, it was distributed in Europe, Japan, and selected US theaters. The restored version premiered at the Japan Cuts (Festival of New Japanese Film) in New York in July 2015, and subsequently at the Fantastic Fest in Austin in September, before being released in theaters in New York and San Francisco starting May 6, 2016.
The restoration was carried out by the private American company Cineliciuos Pics, which, thanks to the only surviving 35mm print in its entirety, owned by Cinematek, the Film Museum in Brussels (which kindly agreed to perform a 4K scan of the missing sections from the print in their possession), was able to recover the final scene depicting the missing painting “Liberty Leading the People” by Eugène Delacroix. In the original version.
Belladonna of Sadness is not only a visually striking anime, thanks to the incomparable beauty of its images combined with its extreme content, but it is also striking, above all, for the incredible intensity of the powerful feminist message it expresses and the boldness with which it does so.
A truly mesmerizing work of art, to be rediscovered and loved, as it deserves.

The film will feature live music by Mirko Signorile and Marco Messina.