The Stendhal Syndrome
by Dario Argento
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Asia Argento, Luigi Diberti, Marco Leonardi, Paolo Bonacelli, Thomas KretschmannDirector: Dario Argento
Cinematographer: Giuseppe Rotunno
Producer: Dario Argento
Writer: Dario Argento
Producer: Giuseppe Colombo
Producer: Walter Massi
Writer: Franco Ferrini
Writer: Graziella Magherini
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 113 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-08-17
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: TROMA ENTERTAINMENT INC.
Movie Reviews of The Stendhal Syndrome
Movie Review: Seriously good psychological thriller
Summary: 5 Stars
CONTAINS ONE MINOR SPOILERThe Stendhal Syndrome was the second movie I saw by Dario Argento. Since then I've become a huge fan of his work. Many people find this multi-layered thriller to be one of his failures and I find that hard to believe. Granted, it's more character driven than most of his movies tend to be and the movie's pace and athmosphere change dramatically in the second half. Still, I found out that it's got a lot of his trademarks (having now viewed all his movies except Four flies on grey velvet, which I can't find anywhere). It's stylish as hell, with great use of artworks (as metaphors that is; the scene where Asia covers herself in paint had me wondering), the music score is excellent (by Ennio Morricone; not Goblin) and the violence is at times extreme (the rape scenes particularly, since you know Asia's father is directing them).
The real difference with this film considering Dario's other films is the psychological undertone. I have watched this movie now three times and I'm always seeing something I didn't figure out the last time. That's what great complex thrillers do, they always keep you wondering. This is without a doubt Dario Argento's most complex film, it demands the audience pay attention to what's happening. As far as psychological thrillers go, this one ranks high.
Summary of The Stendhal Syndrome
International star Asia Argento portrays Anna Manni, a beautiful police detective in pursuit of a savage killer-rapist that has been terrorizing central Italy. When his trail leads Anna to Florence's famed Uffizi Museum, the investigation takes a violently psychotic turn. Anna is struck by a bizarre phenomenon known as the Stendhal Syndrome, a psychological reaction to artwork that makes the viewer fall unconscious; and in Anna's case, vulnerable to the terror she is tracking. As she gets closer to the vicious killer, her strange affliction transports her into nightmares of carnage. Her prey has now become her predator. Anna must destroy the killer before she is destroyed by THE STENDHAL SYNDROME.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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