The Stendhal Syndrome (2-Disc Special Edition)

The Stendhal Syndrome (2-Disc Special Edition)
by Dario Argento

The Stendhal Syndrome (2-Disc Special Edition)
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Asia Argento, Marco Leonardi, Thomas Kretschmann
Director: Dario Argento
Brand: Ryko Distribution
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Italian (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 119 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-09-25
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Blue Underground

Movie Reviews of The Stendhal Syndrome (2-Disc Special Edition)

Movie Review: Repulsion and Then Some
Summary: 5 Stars

Fete of Death
"The Stendhal Syndrome" is a dark, brilliant, unnerving, and beautiful excursion into the mind of a policewoman who is brutally assaulted. Clearly, this is one of Dario Argento's masterworks, aided by a haunting score by the talented Ennio Morricone.

Asia Argento, who plays the heroine, becomes unhinged by her violation. She was not a well woman to begin with, suffering fom a syndrome named after the writer Stendhal that causes her to faint when she views certain works of art that overwhelm her. Her sexual victimization pushes her over the brink of madness, and what ensues is sheer terror. She experiences difficulty distinguishing between fantasy and reality. Her psychological predicament becomes all the more heinous when reality, in the guise of her assailant who continues to stalk her, becomes more horrifying than the chimeras conjured by her overheated imagination.

In its depiction of a woman's descent into madness, this film reminds me of Roman Polanski's "Repulsion," but Dario Argento's film is richer and fuller, whereas Polanski's is claustrophobic. "The Stendhal Syndrome" is Argento at the top of his game.

--Bryan Cassiday, author of "Fete of Death"

Summary of The Stendhal Syndrome (2-Disc Special Edition)

DARIO ARGENTO'S Masterpiece Of Terror - For The First Time Uncut And Uncensored!

When beautiful police detective Anna Manni follows the bloody trail of a sophisticated serial murderer/rapist through the streets of Italy, the young woman falls victim to the bizarre "Stendhal Syndrome" - a hallucinatory phenomenon which causes her to lose her mind and memory in the presence of powerful works of art. Trapped in this twilight realm, Anna plunges deeper and deeper into sexual psychosis, until she comes to know the killer's madness more intimately than she ever imagined.

Horror maestro Dario Argento (SUSPIRIA, OPERA) reaches new heights of florid fantasy and Grand Guignol with this warped work of art starring Maxim Magazine's "Sexiest Woman in the World" Asia Argento (LAND OF THE DEAD, XXX), Thomas Kretschmann (KING KONG, BLADE II) and Marco Leonardi (FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3). Previously edited outside of Italy, THE STENDHAL SYNDROME is now presented here in all its grotesque glory, remastered in High Definition under the supervision of cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno (ALL THAT JAZZ, AMARCORD) from the original Italian 35mm interpositive, and loaded with exclusive new Extras in this 2-Disc Special Edition.


The first half of Dario Argento's heady psycho-thriller is a mesmerizing merging of dream and reality. A beautiful young Italian detective (Asia Argento, who does little to convince us she's a tough, seasoned cop) investigating a serial rapist is suddenly overwhelmed when the paintings in an art museum erupt with life. According to the film, this is "the Stendhal Syndrome," an intense and overwhelming response to art that turns the viewer mad. As Anna steps in and out of fantasy worlds like Alice through the looking glass, she's kidnapped by her quarry, who repeatedly rapes and tortures her in a dark, dank underground cave. The delirious nightmare of shattered reality becomes a sadistic, mean-spirited spectacle of murder and degradation--perpetrated on, of all people, the director's own bound and beaten daughter!--and the thriller disintegrates into a paranoid mystery of amnesia, split psyches, and shadowy phantoms. At its best this is a mesmerizing vision of madness: paintings melt into the real world while objectivity disintegrates before our eyes. But before the unexpectedly sensitive conclusion, Argento puts the viewer through a bravura but brutal series of gory murders (a slow-motion bullet passes through both cheeks of a helpless victim, and another shooting is viewed from inside the body) and unsavory violence. The poetic beauty of Phenomenon and the craftsmanship of Suspiria and Deep Red are sorely missed. --Sean Axmaker

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