Wednesday, December 17, 2008

BELLADONNA more then just a Movie

Dearest All

The trailer for BELLADONNA is almost ready hooray!!! it has been somewhat tricky (as I have mentioned before) Marcus is colour grading it and and is doing a fabulous job! As I have been reflecting on the last 2 years I came across this lecture which I wanted to share with you(below) because it dares to ask a really interesting question. What would you give your last lecture on?( I know 'tiss a season to be jolly' but stay with me) because I think ultimately refining the really important impulses in our lives is what brings focus joy and purpose. So I asked myself Annika what would your last lecture be about? It would be about the utter goodness of humans, courage,and the personal and social contract that we all are a part of.
The Making of BELLADONNA really was an experiment, in what humans can do together. The film is shot on a modest budget and alot of what you'll see on the screen is literally given in form of creativity, knowledge, time, effort and skills. So much intensely hard work went into this project and it was a collective effort. A truly collective effort filled with goodness. Yes at the end of the day we have a beautiful film but what an honour having experienced it first hand.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

BELLADONNA what's in a name?

Greetings friends!!

People often ask me about the name BELLADONNA why? what does it mean where did it come from? Well once upon a time in a land far far away..(or at least 2 years ago) I was refining thescreenplay in which the 16th Century lead character Jadwiga,is a herbalist, and back then it wasn't so easy to be one as they were considered to be witches. So I researched the commonly used herbs back in the 16th Century and here are just a few:
Butterfly weed, Lady’s Mantle, St. John's Wort, Foxglove, Belladonna, Dwarf Iris
Evening Primrose and many more....
Can you imagine a film called "Dwarf Iris"? or Lady's Mantle? or St. John's Wort? (that could be a nice dark sort of children's fairytale about St John)so I did come to the conclusion that BELLADONNA was pretty good... Lily of the Valley was the second favourite.

In the past, it was believed that witches used a mixture of belladonna, opium poppy, and other plants, typically poisonous (such as monkshood and poison hemlock) in flying ointment they applied to help them fly to gatherings with other witches... Ohh dear imagination and all that fear.. and all those women who were drowned and burnt because of their relationships with nature.

The common name BELLADONNA originates from its historic use by women - Bella Donna is Italian for beautiful lady. Drops prepared from the belladonna plant were used to dilate women's pupils, an effect considered attractive, but also incredibly dangerous as the dose between beauty and death was unknown.

Belladonna is one of the most toxic plants found in the Western hemisphere. All parts of the plant contain tropane alkaloids. When we arrived in Poland in April to shoot the 16th Century part we wanted to find the actual plant with flowers as it is fareasier easier to use the real instead of making each flower individually. We missed the flowering season my 6 weeks, and had to make each individual flower by hand. The Production Designer and the Art department made them out of rose petals..(as they had to be eatable) hand painting every flower with purple food dye.
Have a look some of the photos below.


Annika

P.S Belladonna the movie is now on FACEBOOK, and if you are a fan here please join us there we are new and would love some company.

Katia Mazurek who plays Jadwiga was incredibly wonderful this day.. as most of the day she had to sit in the cold ditch eating the flowers..this shot was particularly tricky as it involved a descending camera, snow and perfect timing of all action.