Kanashimi no Belladonna

Belladonna , Kanashimi no Beradonna? , literally Belladonna of Sadness , also known as The Tragedy of Belladonna, is a 1973 feature film produced by the Japanese animation studio Mushi Production and distributor Nippon Herald Films. Directed and cowritten by Eiichi Yamamoto and inspired by Jules Michelets nonfiction book Satanism and Witchcraft, it is the third and final film in the Animerama trilogy and the only one to be neither written nor directed by Osamu Tezuka he left Mushi Production during the films early stages to concentrate on his comics and his conceptualstage contribution is uncredited. Belladonna is also of a more serious tone than the more comedic first two Animerama films. Its visuals consist mostly of still paintings panned across and are strongly influenced by western art, such as Aubrey Beardsley, Gustav Klimt and classic tarot illustrations. The film was a commercial failure and contributed to Mushi Pro becoming bankrupt by the end of the year. The film was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival.

Jeanne and Jean are happy newlyweds in a rural village. Their idyll is promptly shattered when Jeanne, on her wedding night, is raped in a ritual deflowering by the local baron and his lackeys. She returns to Jean terrified and in pain, and he calms her, saying, Let us forget everything in the past. She begins to see visions of a phallicheaded spirit encouraging her to take revenge on the baron meanwhile, the couples fortunes rise even as famine strikes the village and the baron raises taxes to fund his war effort. Jean is made tax collector, and the baron cuts off his hand as punishment when he cannot extract enough money from the village. After another visit from the spirit, Jeanne takes out a large loan from an usurer and sets herself up in the same trade, eventually parlaying it into becoming the true power in the village.Then the baron returns victorious from his war, and his wife, envious of the respect and admiration accorded Jeanne, calls her a witch and has her driven out. Jeanne first tries to return to the home she shares with Jean, but he refuses to open the door for her and she flees into the forest nearby where she finally makes a pact with the spirit, who reveals himself to be the devil. She is granted considerable magical powers, and uses them to lead a rebellion in the village. The narrative of Michelets Sorceress and her resistance against feudalism and the Catholic Church is fudged into that of Joan of Arc Jeanne dArc, whom Belladonnas Jeanne is revealed to be, and her execution by burning. ........

Source: Wikipedia