I just finished rewatching Belladonna Of Sadness and it is an incredible movie.

I love the animation so much. It has some of my favorite transitions in a film and it is able to communicate so much with its images while also looking gorgeous. Literally like a painting. Arguably my favorite scene presenting the incredible value to the animation is the black plague scene. It has a very unique way of presenting the terrible pandemic with so much rhythm and chaos and I love how it shows its impact by how it not only destroys the human body but how it rots all of constructs creates by civilization.

The music is also beautiful and haunting. Perfectly blending with the imagery of the film and communicating the story. The opening theme is among my favorite in any anime.

What's also fascinating is how this film uses the devil as a part of the story. In this case, I believe that the idea is not an actual being in the meaning of this work. The Devil, as he has said himself, is Jeanne herself. The Devil is her right to her sexuality and her autonomy to go beyond her limits as a woman in a society where women are subservient to their husbands and lords. When she accepts to submit herself to the "devil", we are shown images of many things that come to appear in modern society, implying that this choice is what leads to the construction of our current society. And the reason these things are presented as temptations of the dark lord are to express the guilty consciousness of Jeanne and that these systems of power have become such a norm that even she herself believes this is the right way for society to position her on. To Jeanne, her right to her body, to do more for herself and to want anything beyond the circumstances she was born on is greedy and evil. Only by submitting to God and to her life in poverty can she truly stay pure.

When people talk about "Belladonna of Sadness", they will often tell you about how the film is a feminist story but I think there is a bit more to it.

In a way, the devil is also class consciousness and solidarity. Jeanne is not just a woman in this case but she's also poor. And that's what makes her different and more sympathetic to the baron's wife, who was born in riches. And by submitting to those beliefs and ambitions, she is able to challenge those at the top and help the common people who are being taxed too much by the nobility while they maintain their privileged lifestyles. She even cures them from the black plague and gives them parties that they wouldn't have the chance to experience unless they were part of the nobility. And what's ironic about the Jeanne saving them from the black plague is that the black plague in the past was seen in religious spaces as an act from the devil but in the case, Jeanne (The devil) is the one who helps them around the pandemic while nobility is unaffected as the baron has stated. Only Jeanne's influence on the lower classes is able to penetrate through their castle. And if that wasn't enough, the movie hammers the point even more with its ending. Jeanne dies as a martyr in flames for not accepting the grounds of the nobility, which results in spreading her soul around all the women and resulting eventually in the French revolution in which a lot of women get involved.