ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did this film come across your radar?
And Hadrian immediately said, Belladonna of Sadness.
The film is kind of a Holy Grail-lost masterpiece thats only really been available on really degraded formats.
Credit: Cinelicious Pics
[But] the company went under and the movie was never released [in America].
Cinelicious looked into it and were thrilled discover that all the elements for the restoration were available.
As we are doing right now!
[Laughs]
How did you two first see the film?
DN:Cinefamily screened it for a whole bunch of filmmakers, and actors, and so forth.
I was there and I then got a link and sent it to Elijah.
ELIJAH WOOD:I was utterly blown away.
It blew my mind.
Theres nothing like it.
The restoration is so beautiful.
I had seen some images and was obviously super-intrigued by the animation style.
But its something altogether different when you see the 4K restoration.
Its so unique, to blend traditionial animation with these sort of tableaux paintings that the cameras passing over.
Its really just unparalleled.
Ive never seen anything like it.
Then couple that with the almost psychedelic score.
Im such a huge music fan and I was kind of floored.
There are some very strong sexual elements in the film.
EW:I know.
I mean, we take the stance that its effectively a feminist film.
Its very much about female empowerment.
But it definitely is a powerful film for people to see.
EW:[Laughs] Well articulated.
DN:[Laughs] Thats fantastic.
EW:I love that.
It ticks a lot of the boxes for us creatively.
Like you said, we are drawn to things that are slightly outside of normal boxes in genre cinema.
Thisvery muchis that kind of thing.
it’s possible for you to see the trailer forBelladonna of Sadnessbelow and an exclusive clip, above.
