User reviews

Dario Argento is one of my all-time favorite directors, and probably THE living director I admire the most. The 1990s were a weak decade for Horror in general, and also Argento's weakest. Argento is a cinematic genius, however, and while 90s achievements get nowhere near the brilliance of his masterpieces from the 70s and 80s, films like "Trauma" (1993) or this "Stendhal Syndrome" are nonetheless more than decent Thrillers that outshine the majority of 90s Horror outings.

"La Sindrome Di Stendhal" aka "The Stendhal Syndrome", which was made in-between "Trauma" and the disappointing "Il Fantasma Dell'Opera" (1998), is certainly one of his lesser films, but definitely a more than decent, very suspenseful, atmospheric and often quite weird psychological Horror effort that his fans cannot afford to miss. I like it about equally as I do "Trauma", with a slight preference for "The Stendhal Syndrome" due to the brilliant score by Ennio Morricone. What I found a bit strange is that the film is often labeled as a Giallo, when it is not really. There are no stylishly bloody murders from the killer's perspective, and really what makes the term "Giallo" quite out of place is the fact that the killer's identity is not really a mystery. The suspense is there, however, and most true Horror fans will agree that Argento is the absolute master of suspense. While the film is not quite as exceptionally gory as many other Argento flicks, it is definitely violent, especially the several rape-scenes (one of them taking place quite in the beginning) are more than a bit brutal.

Argento reportedly first wanted to get Bridget Fonda and Jenifer Jason Leigh for the leading role in the film, but his beautiful daughter Asia Argento is, as far as I am considered, the perfect cast for the role. She may look a little too young for an experienced female homicide detective, but she fits the character of her role perfectly, and, as far as I am considered, that is most important. Asia plays detective Anna Manni, a Rome investigator specialized on sex crimes, who is trying to track down a serial rapist and murderer... I do not want to give any more of the plot away. The rest of the performances are also quite good, especially the German actor Thomas Kretschmann delivers a good performance, but Asia Argento sure is the highlight. The film is quite different to Argento's other films, but certainly not bad. None other than the great Ennio Morricone delivers a brilliant and immensely eerie score that intensifies the creepy atmosphere, and, as it is always the case with Argento's films, the film is visually stunning and highly suspenseful.

Dario Argento's masterpieces are his films from the 70s and 80s, and he returned to old greatness in 2001, with the ultra-violent and greatly old-fashioned Neo-Giallo "Non Ho Sonno" (aka. "Sleepless"), which was made in brilliant Argento-tradition. His 90s outings are certainly a bit inferior to the rest of his brilliant repertoire, but they are nonetheless way above average. While it is one of lesser films, "The Stendhal Sydrome" is nevertheless a suspenseful, atmospheric and highly recommendable film with some downright ingenious elements that Horror lovers should definitely not miss. Highly recommended!

La Syndrome di Stendahl has met cruel critical comments on its initial release but although it is not at all like his earlier work, it is in fact a far more intelligent and mature affair. Anna Manni, the character played by Asia Argento, has more compassion than any other character in an Argento film, quite unlike the carelessly created cartoon-like characters of his other work. It is true, however that the film drags slightly in the middle, although picks up the pace again for a surprising and beautifully directed finale; and although the film is not as bloody as tenebrae, the violence on display is brutal and sexual (leading to it being cut for release in Britain) and genuinely disturbing. Perhaps not as good as Deep Red or Suspiria, but definitely one of this unusual director's better efforts.

Argento has been cursed with a number of duds in recent years. 'Two Evil Eyes', 'The Phantom of the Opera', 'Sleepless', 'The Card Player' and one of the worst MASTERS OF HORROR episodes yet 'Jenifer'. However, the beautiful, poignant 'The Stendhal Syndrome' is an extremely well crafted rose between a number of poisonous thorns. It sees a return to the atmospheric dream-like charm of his earlier films like 'Phenomena' and 'Suspiria', but adopting his more recent sadism (it's always there, just a different style in his newer films) that gave slight high points in his otherwise dull modern films. After two poorly reviewed films ('Trauma' and 'Two Evil Eyes') Argento has finally done it right.

The film stars his daughter, Asia (whose interesting relationship with Dario adds to the intriguing and off-beat persona he puts out), as Anna, a beautiful police detective in Rome. When she is targeted by the serial killer she is hunting, she is raped and beaten and so leads Argento's best character study and one of the most intense of his films to date. Rather than following the madman as he offs prostitutes and impressionable young women through Italy (the film lightly touches on it, but the more left to the imagination the better), the film follows Anna as she loses grip on reality and develops a strange disease in which she can ever paintings in her mind and they help solve the case, called the Stendhal Syndrome. As the film goes on the attacks on Anna become more and more vicious, and the final climatic ending is one of Argento's best.

Asia delivers a interesting performance, to say it is good is to stretch the truth, but it is suited to the role and you can tell she has a lot of acting talent. All the other performances are rather flat, but as with all of Agento's films the performances aren't what really matter. The cinematography is bland, but as with Asia's performance suits the film better than if it were Technicolor. The tension and music is amazing, the film devotes itself to really unsettling you, rather than just entertaining you like other recent Argento's. 'The Stendhal Syndrome' is probably the most violent and disturbing I've seen the man go, the rape and murder scenes are gratuitously sadistic and the scenes where Anna is raped are bordering on exploitation.

Overall 'The Stendhal Syndrome' is a fantastic return to form fr Argento, and I hope 'The Third Mother' is anywhere near as well-crafted as this.

7/10

The Stendhal Syndrome is said to be a disorder where, upon viewing works of art, a person suffers from chills, anxiety attacks, and hallucinations where they believe they're actually in the paintings themselves. Don't ask me how real or common this disorder is since I'm not a doctor, but it sure makes for an interesting case study in Dario Argento's The Stendhal Syndrome.

Anna Manni (Asia Argento) is an Italian police detective who goes to an art museum due to an phone tip from a woman claiming that she knows a serial rapist and murderer will be there. Once there, Anna suffers from an attack of Stendhal and ends up getting knocked out. When she comes to, a man is there and he follows her back to her room, rapes her, and kidnaps her, forcing her to watch him murder another victim. She flees from the scene, but the worst is yet to come.

It's hard to talk about this film without spoiling everything, but let's just say that the character of Anna goes through several transitions throughout the film. The 1st act of the film is pretty gripping and the 2nd act isn't terrible either, but by the 3rd act, you get the feeling like they don't know how to wrap this up so they're just stalling and making up stuff to distract us from the fact that the movie hasn't cleared for landing yet. By the end, you'll definitely be left scratching your head and wishing they'd have just ended it a half hour sooner.

Asia Argento isn't ideally suited for the role either and only seems to really come to life during the 2nd act where she adopts a touch, butch persona. She seems uncomfortable in the 1st and 3rd acts. There are also some questionable CGI effects throughout that take you out of the movie and it's not as stylish as many of Dario Argento's other works.

I haven't seen "Stendhal Syndrome" in more then ten years, so I was quite thrilled when I found it on DVD (the sweet 2 disc edition) and decided to give it a shot and see if I could still be amazed by Argento.

and how does this movie hold?

Rather well I must say. While it's certainly not good as some of the Argento's earlier work, it's still one of the highlights of Argento's career. Comparing it with his early masterpieces is hard, since "Stendhal Syndrome" is much more different. It's based on personal experience Argento had as a child, much like "Phenomena" was based on Argento's current obsession of that time.

Narrative is very complex and it might be bit hard to fallow if you aren't fully concentrated or you are not familiar with Argento's narrative style - while his stories are usually linear in terms of story progression, but he often uses fragmented narrative which give some scenes dream-like narrative (this worked rather well in his supernatural movies, like Suspiria).

Story itself is bit different from his early giallo movies, because in this one, violence doesn't happen often (but when they do, they are rather nasty) and it's more character driven. It's true psychological thriller (modern filmmakers who sell their torture porn as "psychological" please learn from Mr. Argento and this movie) where we fallow the psyche of detective Anna Manni (played by Asia Argento, director's daughter) as she tries to fight serial killer and her personal demons that grow stronger after each encounter with him. (I won't go into much details because of the spoilers).

Dario Argento's visual style is still impressive, and his camera work fits perfectly with narrative and storytelling. There are some beautiful shots and interesting camera work. There's also use of contrast much like in Suspiria, but in SS, Argento had some very good moments that impressed me. In some scenes, where we fallow Anna in her apartment, contrast is strong and colors can be bright, but as the movie progresses, colors are becoming much darker and "realistic". There's a scene where Anna confronts the killer in underground (sewers) and movie drastically changes from white and red (Anna's apartment) into black, gray and brown (not only because of the set, but because Argento decided to saturate those colors even more).

Asia Argento is beautiful as usual and she gives a strong performance here.

Music is haunting and creepy, and perfectly fits with the movie.

Watch this in original Italian audio, English dub wasn't that good.

6.5/10 but I gave it 7, because Dario Argento is awesome guy in person. Meet him few years back and he was funny, charming and very down-to- earth.

Argento had seen his better days as a movie director and surely it's not easy to top such masterpieces such as Suspiria and The Inferno.

Asia Argento as detective Anna Manni isn't the best casting choice but as an actress she certainly did her best. It's difficult to believe that she really is a police detective at such a young age. It's obvious that a more mature actress should have been cast. Nevertheless that obscurity could have been used to make the film better. Would it be a better film if Anna Manni was just a woman living in her delusions.

The film certainly had it's moments but on the other hand it has some annoying flaws such as very bad cgi effects. Why use experimental effects if they look dumb. They should have gone back in time to the 70's or 80's how they made the effects without computers.

Ennio Morricone's score is amazing though and certainly does a big favor for the film's atmosphere. To sum it up this film is watchable even for Argento fans but it isn't anything like his films used to be. It's really evident that Italian film industry had been in a recession since the late 80's.

Regarded as one of Argento's lesser works, I find this one much more plausible than any of his early films. Let's face it, Argento doesn't care much about plot or even acting. His films are probably the frustrating I've ever seen: There are things I love, and things I hate about them. I grew up watching much of his films mutilated by Italian Television. I was a kid back then, and strangely enough his films never scared me when they were supposed to. They were really over the top. But I loved the colours, the pictures and once in a while I found myself humming Claudio Simonetti's electronic scores.

Now with this film Argento has Morricone, who is definitely a master and he does a great job here. Anna's character is really intriguing. Some people dismiss Asia's acting style, but I think it goes very well with her father's aesthetics. You wont find the crazy colours here. Everything is more restrained. The opening for example scene is great. But the film looses interest towards the end. Still I think is one of Argento's most solid pieces. The idea is truly interesting and Anna's relationship with the killer is fascinating. The hallucinations scenes of Anna going into the paintings are masterfully done.

After the huge disappointment of Il Cartaio, I hope he truly returns to form, and start doing what he's good at: Going crazy with film. La Sindrome Di Stendhal is a pretty good step.

One of the key things in setting up a horror movie for a director has to be mood: if you get your mood right, then you've taken your first step into a larger, more controlled mis-en-scene. Dario Argento is such a bad-ass with mood that one wonders if he comes on to his sets like one of those gunslingers so ready and able that you can feel him draw his eye on a scene in his own way before anyone else can do it so. The mood he sets up, and keeps going on in a disturbing manner, for the Stendhal Syndrome involves a character who we see in the opening scenes walking along in a busy street, go into a museum and just staring at the paintings. But something else is going on: she (Asia Argento) keeps feeling dizzy, looking around mesmerized, not in a good way. She suddenly stares at a painting, feverishly, and sees herself going into the painting itself, in the deep blue ocean of a landscape - and then she awakes, not sure where she was before in the museum. A man comes to help her outside since she left her purse behind, but is this man who he says he...

OK, Argento can take it from here. This is a story that may, in fact, be more disturbing than his films from the 1970s. This doesn't mean it's quite as unforgettable or masterful - a few little things and a couple of potential big things keep it from greatness - but it's never less than interesting as part of Argento canon. One of the things to notice is that, unlike in the past, Argento isn't interested this time in fetishizing the aspect of the "mystery killer" throughout the film. On the contrary, the killer is right out in the open, a truly, brilliantly insane rapist-killer played by Thomas Kreutschman, who helps Asia outside the museum... but then returns when she's on the phone with him (one of those awesome "JUMP" scares when he sort of magically appears in the room), and rapes and beats her. Argento likes this actor in the role, and he's so effective in that we hate him so much and can't wait to see his just desserts gotten.

The other interesting thing is the treatment of the protagonist in this very (psychologically-speaking) twisted Giallo - in part due to the casting. Some may be able to get past the fact that this is Argento's daughter in the lead (originally, to give the benefit of the doubt, Bridget Fonda was cast and then backed out), and he puts her through some grueling things; aside from the obvious (scenes of rape and nudity and some brutal violence), there's the plunging deep into the scarring of a woman who already has a truly surreal disease not unlike an obscure comic-book hero. These are some of the freakiest scenes I've ever seen in any movie, if one can apply 'freaky' here which it should be: seeing her fall into these paintings, the faces of the sculptures, make it about the horror of the abstract intruding in on life, and these are quite creative. The other thing is how far Asia Argento goes into her sickness after the halfway point, when we think things should be getting better following a horrific encounter and the aftermath.

It's a performance that Asia is game for, and she gives it her all, even when things turn into those ludicrous beats one can see from time to time in Dario's movies. One short scene I loved was when Anna is putting on her make-up, slowly, taking her time, putting on her blonde wig (a Hitchcock touch?) while the buzzer is going off frantically and the Ennio Morricone score- as usual a variation on a great theme- plays on. One of the things that ends up making it tolerable of what the father is putting his daughter through here is that it's such a ballsy movie in typical Giallo clothing, reevaluating true evil vs true psychosis. It's only exploitive in certain little things that stick out, such as the silly CGI shot of the pill going down the throat (unnecessary) or the bullet going through the head or with the slow-motion reflection of the killer on the sheen of the bullet. And there are story things that seem a little too simple to bare on first thought, like how quickly Anna bags a guy whom she genuinely is attracted to and doesn't tell him a thing until a certain day when... well, you'll get the idea.

Sure, we've seen the detective-plot stuff, and sure the acting isn't all around very good all of the time save for its two main leads. But when its director gets going with something, it's still invigorating and cringe-worthy a lot of the time. My face when watching this film was a series of slack-jawed pauses and upturned eyebrows. It's gory and flamboyantly directed and it's a hell of a mind-f***, but it works, ultimately, and even underrated.

THE STENDHAL SYNDROME is probably the most linear Dario Argento movie since THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE. The story is very Hitchcokian, in the way it's filmed and the way the main character (played by Asia Argento) goes through a series of life altering events that lead to its eventual conclusion. I didn't dislike STENDHAL. In fact, compared to Dario's recent movie, the woeful SLEEPLESS, STENDHAL SYNDROME is positively fantastic. It's refreshing to see an Argnto movie that doesn't open with a murder. It's about time Dario started moving away from his formula filmmaking. But there are several problems with this movie that prevents it from being great.

The first problem is that Asia is simply too young for the role. She looks like a teenager. That doesn't mean Asia, the actress, is not up for the challenge. She is. For the first time ever in an Argento movie(?), Asia's Anna is actually a 3 dimensional person. The characterization ain't perfect but characters in Argento movies are usually so flat and one dimensional that Anna looks, in comparison, positively fleshed out. But I wish Dario and Asia had waited a couple of years before making this movie. Asia is, at times, totally unconvincing because of her youthful appearance.

The second problem is the look of the film. It looks drab and flat. What happened to the director who did visually stunning films like DEEP RED or SUSPIRIA or INFERNO?!?! The camerawork is basically serviceable. In some instances, it's actually quite good but there's almost no memorable shots or scenes in the whole thing.

The third problem is the supporting characters in the movie. The psychologist, the police officers, Asia's brothers and father, and even the rapist, are all unremarkable. The police officers all look alike and is difficult to identify with any of them. In the psychologist case, his character is borderline silly.

And the fourth and biggest problem is the structure. Structurally speaking, STENDHAL SYNDROME is extremely flawed. Almost two thirds of the film is devoted to the rapist character (the catalyst) and the last third is about the "new" Anna. It shouldn't have been like this. It leaves little time for the new "Anna," which should have been the main part of the movie. STENDHAL SYNDROME looks like a character driven movie. It should have been a character driven movie. But Dario Argento is uncomfortable dealing with people and their emotions, and by concentrating so much time on the harrowing events that messes up Anna and not on Anna herself, the film feels flat and predictable. Like it's on cruise control. The excellent music by Ennio Morricone reinforces this as it is monotonous and the same tune is used repeatedly throughout the film. In the end, it feels like a one-note flick rather than a true 3 dimensional portrayal of Anna's decent into insanity.

After watching STENDHAL SYNDROME, I had the impression that Dario was only interested in the surprise twist ending of the "new" Anna and that everything leading up to this was just filler. Dario's direction can be described as too fatalistic. It's a shame STENDHAL SYNDROME is not better because the idea of "transferring" insanity is a very interesting one. STENDHAL SYNDROME is okay late Argento, nothing more.

What makes up the singular pleasure that is Dario Argento? Maybe it's the crossroads where High Romanticism and hardcore porn meet. (I'm referring to the feeling of his work--not the images.) Argento seems doomed, like Peckinpah and like Lynch, to have summed up his world-view in a single masterpiece, the 1977 SUSPIRIA; the thrillers that came before and the low-budget shockers that came after may offer delights, but nothing close to that unity of vision.

Seeing THE STENDHAL SYNDROME projected in Los Angeles, I was struck with newfound sympathy for the Star Wars fans protesting way too much in favor of THE PHANTOM MENACE. If you love THE STENDHAL SYNDROME, you love Argento, and that is that--you may see the flaws, but they don't ruin your pleasure. The picture has too many Achilles heels to enumerate here, but what's important is that nobody in world cinema today is wrestling with his soul in the psychosexual mire the way Argento does. He puts his misogynistic demons and his almost sentimental compassion right out there; and only Cronenberg has such a direct pipeline to his own unconscious. Not to mention the fabulous, cascading images--Argento's stock-in-trade is Victorian Liebestod, Edward Gorey gone porno, and THE STENDHAL SYNDROME has sequences that rank with his best.

The sketchy thing about STENDHAL SYNDROME, like the maestro's TRAUMA, is his use of his daughter, Asia Argento, in scenes one cannot imagine a father watching, much less filming. Whatever memoirs come down the pike twenty years later, it must be said: Argento for certain lets it all hang out, and the land-mined terrain he maps is, to my taste, thrilling.

Definitely heady stuff from a filmmaker whose prior experience with psychological subtext has been problematic at best, this film highlights a fearless performance by Asia Argento. The obvious "Argento touches" (i.e., pills rattling down an esophagus, the bullet through a woman's face) stick out like a sore thumb, as they act not in service to the story but rather to reference what is expected from Argento; after the catastrophe of Trauma (Argento imitating a hack filmmaker imitating Argento), this film goes in directions that the director's previous films had only hinted at, and doesn't lead to rely on trademarks for a crutch.

The pace of the film is extremely well-handled in the first half, although it seems to lose track in the second half exactly where the narrative should be tightening up. But given Argento's lack of experience with more plot-driven material, this is in some measure to be expected. Cinematography, sets, art direction are all exemplary.

The acting is always a sore point for Argento movies. Here, only a couple of actors are allowed to give performances, but they make them count. Thomas Kretschmann is only on screen a few times, but gives a strong enough impression in that time (and not simply because of the brutal material contained there) that his role seems much larger. However, the film lives or dies with Asia's performance, and she throws herself into it with abandon. She's ultimately more convincing when she's required to be fierce than when she's required to be vulnerable, but goes through a bewildering range of emotions with scarcely a false note. And it's to her credit that it's so unsettling watching the torments her father subjects her to, so to speak, because she commits herself to their realization so thoroughly.

Comparing this to films from Argento's peak period is not really applicable...it comes from an entirely different vein. Which makes it all the more depressing that his next movie would be Il Fantasma dell'Opera, easily his worst.

THE STENDHAL SYNDROME (La Sindrome di Stendhal)

Aspect ratio: 1.66:1

Sound format: Dolby Digital

A sadistic rapist/serial killer (Thomas Kretschmann) targets a female police officer (Asia Argento) who suffers from a rare medical condition which causes her to faint in the presence of Great Art.

Those disappointed by the perceived 'failure' of Dario Argento's TRAUMA (1993) are hardly likely to be reassured by THE STENDHAL SYNDROME, a heavygoing thriller quite unlike anything else in this director's filmography. Though punctuated by scenes of horrific violence - played straight by Argento, with few of his trademark stylistic flourishes - the film wastes a lot of valuable time on an otherwise laudable attempt to depict the long-term consequences of a vicious sexual assault on the central character, which slows the pace to a crawl. Furthermore, the harsh subject matter allows no room for levity, and Argento appears to sublimate his own cinematic instincts in deference to the sumptuous artwork that acts as a catalyst for the killer's activities.

For all its shortcomings, however, there's a fierce intelligence underpinning the film's otherwise predictable scenario: Asia de-emphasizes her femininity in response to Kretschmann's initial attack (she cuts her hair short), and uses a long blonde wig to re-establish her sexuality after a second assault in which she emerges the victor (or does she?), a device which minimizes the damage wrought by a painfully obvious climactic 'twist'. Sadly, the movie is weakened by yet another surly characterization by Asia (aggressive and petulant, with no redeeming warmth), and the supporting cast struggle to find their place within the narrative: Marco Leonardi is the devoted boyfriend cast aside in the wake of Asia's trauma; psychologist Paolo Bonacelli stumbles on a terrible secret; and Julien Lambroschini is the new man in Asia's life, a sweet young French boy who rescues her from emotional exile. There's at least one terrific set-piece, in which a potential victim is stalked through a dimly lit room full of over-sized marble statues (a brilliantly edited sequence which suggests everything and reveals nothing), and gorehounds will appreciate an audacious CGI shot of a bullet travelling through someone's head in glorious s-l-o-w motion. Overall, "Stendhal" may not be vintage Argento, but it's too clever and unsettling to be dismissed, and it gets under the skin like no other horror film in recent memory.

NB. This review is based on a viewing of both the Italian and English versions. For some strange reason, the latter print omits a crucial sequence depicting Asia's introduction to Lambroschini's mother (Veronica Lazar), which - on second viewing - is revealed as an act of monstrous betrayal...

(English version)

A strange dark film. Not once did I understand the main characters actions but I liked where the film went. To balance out the weird actions there were some pretty intense scenes of violence and some cringe worthy imagery. Not Argento's best but definitely his signature style.

As a fan of Dario Argento's distinctively bold film-making techniques, I can find little to get excited about in his 90s output: it was the decade that the director seemed to lose his creative mojo, the three (and a half) films he made during that period lacking the innovation and magic of his previous work.

The Stendhal Syndrome, which followed the disappointing Trauma (1993), features a typically bizarre plot that offers plenty of potential but fails to hit the mark in almost every possible way: gone are Argento's cleverly orchestrated scenes of hyper-stylised violence, only to be replaced by uncharacteristically tawdry scenes of rape and sadism; there's little evidence of the director's trademark stunning visuals to help distract the viewer from the dull and uneven pacing (the creaky CGI just doesn't cut it); and the overall enjoyment factor is further hampered by a unlikeable central performance from Dario's daughter Asia. Even Ennio Morricone's score seems lacking.

Argento's final film of the 90s, The Phantom of the Opera, also failed to please the majority of his fans (although I actually quite enjoyed it for its sheer absurdity). The new millennium saw a slight return to form with Non Ho Sonno (AKA Sleepless) and The Card Player, but the negative critical reception of Giallo and Mother of Tears suggests that his best days are long gone.

This movie is structured in such a way that the 'climax' appears to occur much earlier than one would expect. I was left wondering what in the world Argento was going to do to keep the action going. I was eventually thrilled by the result, but I still must admit that there was a 15 minute stretch in the middle when I just couldn't figure out at all where the movie was headed. In this way, the structure reminded me a bit of Vertigo.

Unfortunately, the one thing that is usually the best in Argento's work -- the cinematography -- is obscured by an unbelievably bad DVD transfer by Troma. Compared to Anchor Bay's treatment of films like Deep Red and Phenomena, Troma's release of Stendahl Syndrome looks like a 3rd generation VHS. If you care about your DVD transfer quality, you definately need to preview this one before buying it. Movie 7/10, DVD transfer 2/10.