Beautiful 2016 restoration
Thursday, July 28, 2016 - Thursday, July 28, 2016
Quickdraw Animation Society presents:
Belladonna of Sadness
Thursday, July 28, 2016 @ 7:00 PM
Globe Cinema - 617 8th Avenue SW, Calgary, AB
$10 General | $8 Quickdraw Members
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
Beautiful 2016 restoration of this 1973 classic animated, one night only presented by Quickdraw Animation Society and Globe Cinema.
Synopsis: "After being banished from her village, a peasant woman makes a pact with the devil to gain magical ability."
Belladonna! A psychedelic, sexy, and fraught take on women’s sexual liberation, this film is more than a bit complicated (and comes with a serious heads up—there are scenes of terrible violence against women that don’t really let up and are presented in concerning ways). The film fights the good feminist fight on the whole—for sexual liberation, for the poor and oppressed. It would just be a bit hard to argue that it takes no pleasure in its depictions of oppression.
It would be more accurate to say that the film takes pleasure at every turn, from the free-flowing nature orgies to the devil’s phallic conniving to the arrival of the black plague. The drawings, the animation, and the energy of the film definitely mark it a masterpiece, and with Cinelicious’ 2016 remastering, you can finally see it in all its shocking, witchy, wonderful glory. Set to a psych rock soundtrack by renowned Japanese avant-garde composer Masahiko Satoh, the film pulsates with colours, erotic energy, and a women’s desire to know herself, to be powerful, and to fight what she knows is a worthwhile fight. Not to be missed by those not faint-of-heart, and great fodder for conversations around women’s rights in a world where, quite frankly, stuff gets complicated. — LL
Calgary Showtimes: Belladonna of Sadness >
