text: Production and release Belladonna of Sadness is directed and co-written by Eiichi Yamamoto and inspired by Jules Michelet's 1862 non-fiction book La Sorcière. It is the only film in the Animerama trilogy to have been neither written nor co-directed by Osamu Tezuka (he left during the film's early stages in 1971 to concentrate on his manga, and his conceptual-stage contribution is uncredited). Belladonna is also of a more serious tone than the more comedic first two Animerama films. According to Jason DeMarco of Paste Magazine, its visuals consist mostly of still paintings panned across "with occasional expressive bursts of color and movement scattered throughout". Jasper Sharp of Midnight Eye also observed that its visuals, designed by illustrator Kuni Fukai, resemble modernist and Art Nouveau painters such as Gustav Klimt, Odilon Redon, Alphonse Mucha, Egon Schiele and Félicien Rops. Production of the film lasted from 1967 to 1973. The film was a commercial failure and contributed to Mushi Pro going bankrupt by the end of the year. The film was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival.
  The film had general releases in some mainland European countries as well as Japan, and some one-off screenings the United States, including in 2009, and underwent a 4K digital restoration for theatrical release in May 2016. In August 2016, Hat & Beard Press released a companion book containing illustrations, script outtakes, film stills and staff interviews.
  The restoration was screened on July 10, 2015, in a preview at Japan Cuts, and then played on September 24 at Fantastic Fest in Austin before a theatrical run beginning on May 6, 2016, in New York City and San Francisco.