The Film Lost in a Surrealist Wonderland

Belladonna of Sadness (1973), a psychedelic and erotic Japanese animated film, was just recently released for the first time in the United States in 2016 despite being initially released in Japan 43 years ago. Bankrupting the studio that created it, and disturbing the audience at its screening at the 1973 Berlin Film Festival (which included many children), the film became “lost” to all but cinephiles for its horrific depictions of rape and overtly sexual imagery. For almost four and a half decades, the film world was deprived of an important piece of art. What might be even more interesting is that Belladonna of Sadness has its roots not just in manga and anime, but in a European cultural movement of the 1920s and 1930s–surrealist art.

One of the reasons that Belladonna of Sadness is a surrealist film is the use of dreams to explore emotions and desires. Surrealism as a movement took to Freud’s concepts of psychoanalysis, and emphasized dreams as a window into the unconscious where our innermost wishes are revealed. Andre Breton wrote that surrealism was the, “resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak.”[1] In Belladonna of Sadness, the protagonist Jeanne encounters the “devil” in her dreams. Distraught by her rape by the King and his council, the Devil in her “dream” discusses her desire for power, a good life for her husband, and her vengeance. As her life continues to unravel despite increasing power granted to her by this devil in her sleep, Jeanne continues to desire power regardless of what she must exchange in trade. However, these desires delve deeper into Freudian concepts.

Jeanne’s shock after discovering the phallic devil.

In The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Freud believed that dreams contained repressed sexual wishes that weren’t easily identifiable, so that the dreamer would not be woken by them.[2] Jennifer Bundy, in her book Surrealism: Desire Unbounded, states that “surrealists saw sexual desire as a path to self-knowledge.”[3] In Jeanne’s sleep, the devil approaches her in the form of a phallus, though this form is not immediately apparent; the devil appears as a pink head peering from a white, burning cloak. One might assume that the figure is phallic in shape at first, but its nature doesn’t become obvious until the devil starts to rub himself against the skin of Jeanne, causing Jeanne to emit repressed moans. In order to obtain her other desires, Jeanne is forced to trade sex to the devil and stimulate him so that he grows; she simultaneously enjoys and feels ashamed of her “transaction.” Therefore, with the film’s exploration of the Freudian concept of desire, especially sexual desire in sleep, Belladonna of Sadness shows surrealist characteristics.

Still more, the sexual desires of Jeanne in her sleep provokes the Freudian concept of “Penis Envy,” another concept focused on by Surrealist artists. Freud believed that all women were jealous of men for possessing a penis, especially as the link between male possession of power and the phallus becomes more apparent to women in their development.[4] According to Freud, as women developed, their inability to obtain a penis and their overwhelming focus on this issue caused women to be more underdeveloped and intellectually inferior to men.[4] Likewise, the figure that appears to Jeanne in her dreams is a phallus that continues to grow as Jeanne’s desires grow. No matter what Jeanne gives up (even her soul), she never experiences more power than men or obtains the metaphorical penis; she is always crushed by some male figure no matter how powerful she becomes, ultimately being burned at the stake at the film’s conclusion for challenging the king’s power. The only people who can save Jeanne, such as her husband Jean and the Devil, possess a phallus.

However, there are sexual images everywhere throughout the film (outside of Jeanne’s dreams) since surrealist artists had a tendency to foster all of their sexual obsessions and fantasies instead of correcting them. Clouds, ghosts, mushrooms, skulls, chickens, clowns, snails, and even giraffes are painted with the resemblance of a phallus. Vaginas are represented as hands, flowers, clams, etc. Still more, there is a couple minute long scene that consists of Jeanne and the townspeople engaging in an orgy with strobing lights used to portray orgasm. With surrealism’s focus on Freudian concepts and sexuality, Belladonna of Sadness is clearly surrealist with its abundance of sexual imagery and the unconscious female desire for a phallus.

The kaleidoscopic watercolors of Belladonna of Sadness.

Belladonna of Sadness also demonstrates characteristics of surrealism with its uncomfortable imagery. Surrealist imagery is “outlandish, perplexing, and even uncanny, as it is meant to jolt the viewer out of their comforting assumptions.” Surrealist movement founder Andre Breton explains, “There is every reason to believe that it [surrealism] acts on the mind very much as drugs do; like drugs, it creates a certain state of need and can push man to frightful revolts. It also is, if you like, an artificial paradise.”[1] Surrealist images are trippy, psychedelic, confusing, and unsettling. Likewise, Belladonna of Sadness creates a psychedelic, what appears to be drug-induced, world using the trippy animation style of the 1970s. The images of the film are created with watercolor paint with backgrounds of blobs of vivid, bright colors. Throughout the film, colors and lighting strobe to replicate a drug-like state; circles and other shapes oscillate in a kaleidoscopic pattern. Naked women slowly dance to funky music with their hair completely puffed out while monsters bubble like a lava lamp. Even a creepily smiling Ronald McDonald makes an appearance in the film from morphing shapes. Furthermore, the film pushes the boundaries of comfort in its audience. There are multiple, visceral, and horrific rape scenes. In the first rape scene alone (the scene where Jeanne is raped by the king and his council), Jeanne is presented naked with her legs spread and a blob of red color in between. With each thrust, the red color surges through her body symbolizing the bloody break of the virgin hymen. Eventually, the bloody surge moves so far up her body that she is split into two, providing one of the most grotesque and gruesome scenes in cinema. Belladonna of Sadness is undoubtedly surrealist in its use of frightening, trippy, and other-worldly imagery.

Evidently, Belladonna of Sadness is an important piece of surrealist art. Like in classic surrealist pieces, the film explores Freudian concepts of psychoanalysis, delves into sexuality, and reveals the desires expressed in our unconscious dreams.  It is truly tragic that this film was lost for so much time, as it not only embodies the hippy culture of the 1970s, but also serves as a beautiful manifestation of surrealism.

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1. Breton, André. Manifesto of Surrealism. 1924.
2. Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. 1900.
3. Mundy, Jennifer. Surrealism: Desire Unbounded. Princeton University Press: 2001.
4. Freud, Sigmund. Lecture XXXIII: “Femininity.” 1933.