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Before I say anything else, do not watch this movie if sexual violence is a PTSD trigger for you, or if it's simply something you really don't want to see. I'm not being ironic here. Belladonna of Sadness is a 1973 animated film made by Osamu Tezuka's Mushi Pro studio- their final film, in fact. It's the final part of a series they did known as "Animerama," which consisted of three pornographic anime made in an attempt to save the studio, which had been in dire financial straits at that point (if you're wondering whether it worked, the obscurity of this movie and its companions, Cleopatra: Queen of Sex and A Thousand and One Nights, should answer that question for you pretty handily). Given its backstory, you'd expect something safe, sane, conventional, et cetera. This is none of those things. (Trailer is  )https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WkcLMapo_Y The basic plot of the film is: a French peasant woman by the name of Jeanne marries her lover, (slightly confusingly) named Jean. The local baron sets a completely absurd marriage tax that Jean has no way of being able to pay, and uses it as a pretext to have Jeanne gang-raped. Jeanne runs back home in a shambles afterwards, and, to put it mildly, Jean is not the most supportive. Eventually, the Devil himself (voiced by Tatsuya Nakadai, most famous for playing Lord Ichimonji in Akira Kurosawa's Ran and Hanshiro in Masaki Kobayashi's Harakiri) appears to her as a tiny imp and sweet-talks her into letting him in, and... to avoid spoilers (as much as this movie can truly be spoiled), things get good, and then they get really, really bad. The best way I can characterize the film is Polanski's Repulsion by way of Gerald Scarfe on a particularly big acid binge, done as a medieval period piece. There's really nothing quite like it, on the whole; there's other films that share elements with it, but as a total package, this movie is utterly unique. The animation is largely... not; large portions of the movie are pans over still images, done in the style of Gustav Klimt. However, when it does have actual animation, said animation is completely bugfuck insane and features such things as a man repeatedly making GBS threads out winged fish and another man with a giraffe for a cock during an orgy. (Yes, you read that correctly, and yes, I'm being literal.) The score is absolutely incredible jazzy prog-rock by Masahiko Sato. It's a psychedelic, crazy, and utterly loving ballsy movie that could not have come from any other country or any other time period. And if nothing I've said so far scares you off, watch the living gently caress out of this movie. It's not a pleasant watch, but I just about guarantee you that you've never seen anything like this, and that alone makes it worth a drat; the fact that it loving owns is just a cherry on top. It was given a limited theatrical release by Cinelicious Pictures over the last two months (which is how I saw this crazy goddamn thing) and is now currently on VOD, uncut, uncensored and restored in 4K. If you're interested, there's no excuse to not see it nowadays; previously, this was actually considered a lost film, as the only previously available version was missing about fifteen minutes and in horrible quality (especially comparatively). At any rate, I'm curious to see just what in the gently caress CineD makes of this movie. It feels like something made specifically for you guys. WeedlordGoku69 fucked around with this message at 13:21 on Jul 26, 2016 |
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Jul 26, 2016 10:46
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:This sounds really interesting and I'll see if I can give it a watch soon. It would be more accurate to say that they made the first two movies in the Animerama series to bring in money. Cleopatra and A Thousand and One Nights are, to my knowledge, relatively conventional (though still somewhat trippy and experimental). Those both bombed, so this was, by all appearances, them essentially going "gently caress it, let's just go balls out and see if it takes." G-III posted:This movie is good stuff as I saw it a few years ago (there were full version up on youtube for a short while). The restoration looks amazing and yes, the fuzzed out 70s prog jazz music is the crown jewel. It's seriously a night-and-day quality difference between the old bootleg and the new restoration. It's about on the level of the Aliens restoration from a few years back. WeedlordGoku69 fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Jul 26, 2016 |
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Jul 26, 2016 20:53
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John Lee posted:So, I want to watch this movie, but I fear I may be terrifically undereducated and underequipped; I don't have a Blu-Ray player, and a quick Google of "VOD movies" says it's probably Video On Demand. Isn't that like a Comcast exclusive thing? VOD, in common parlance, means that, but also online streaming like iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, VUDU, etc. I'm actually not sure if this is gonna be on your cable box, but it's most certainly on Amazon and iTunes.
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Jul 26, 2016 21:45
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John Lee posted:psh like I have CABLE It's not on Prime, you're gonna have to drop 5 bucks on a rental.
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Jul 27, 2016 01:21
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Xealot posted:It's basically beyond criticism, on that point...it's such an unusual approach to narrative and is so visually unique, I don't know what you'd compare it to or what framework you'd use to evaluate it. That's kind of how I feel about it, yeah. Like, it's been nearly three months since I've seen it and I still frankly don't know what to make of it. eats-almonds posted:I still can't really place my finger on whether this was horribly misogynist or the opposite, though. While I just said I don't really know what to make of this movie, I'm gonna take a stab, pretty much just based on my gut reactions when I watched it. Spoiler-tagged in its entirety because pretty much the only part you can really spoil (the plot) is what I'm focusing on. The thing is, at the end of the day, Jeanne is the heroine. We're meant to be rooting for her, not jeering at her. Hell, the entire reason the Baron has her burned at the stake is because she's helping too many people and making him look like a jackass. While Satan, frankly, treats her like poo poo... I mean, it's Satan. That kind of comes with the territory, really. Jeanne submitting to him is treated less as an outright good thing and more of a desperation-fueled grasp at any sort of agency, and ironically, giving her sexual agency up to Satan gives her immense personal, political and social agency elsewhere. I do, ultimately, think it's going for a feminist message in this regard; it's essentially saying, even bluntly so in the final shot, that women being allowed agency in their lives is the key to a happy society. While the rape is more than a little over-the-top, I chalk that up to it being a Japanese grindhouse movie from the 70s; like with Satan being kind of an rear end in a top hat, comes with the territory.
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Jul 28, 2016 08:11
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Vincent posted:There's also a companion book (which I thought it was an art book) to the movie https://www.amazon.com/Belladonna-S...onna+of+sadness I really want this book but it's expensive as balls. 
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Jul 31, 2016 22:27
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This movie is on Amazon Prime now, for anyone who was interested but balking at renting it.
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Sep 14, 2016 17:46
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Bumping this thread again because this movie's going up on Shudder next month. If you're still sleeping on it, maybe don't do that, because this movie is indescribable.Chris Knight posted:It was playing at my local theater here in Toronto over the summer. At one point (and if you've seen it you'll know what I mean) I just wanted to stand up and yell, "And then the acid kicked in!" Let me guess, the orgy sequence?  quote:I didn't particularly like it but I'm glad I saw such a rare and bizarre film. The sound was super tinny when I saw it, and the soundtrack deserved a better presentation. But eh what do you want from the 70s? Wait, really? When I saw it at an Alamo Drafthouse here in Houston, "tinny" would not have been the word I'd have used, so much as "absolutely loving deafening." Were you seeing the restored version, or was it one of the older bootleg prints? Because I'll give you that those were total rear end. WeedlordGoku69 fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Sep 29, 2016 |
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Sep 29, 2016 05:10
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Hollismason posted:This is being released on Shudder in October so I am super looking forward to seeing it. LORD OF BOOTY posted:Bumping this thread again because this movie's going up on Shudder next month. Good to know I'm actually getting people's attention a little, because jesus gently caress, this movie.
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Sep 29, 2016 06:08
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