morrison-dylan-fan After tracking down the "work print" cut to writer/directing auteur Dario Argento's underrated 1993 Giallo Trauma,I decided to search around online,for details about other Argento movies with different cuts.Taking a look at Amazon UK reviews,I was pleased to discover that an uncut edition of The Stendhal Syndrome had come out on DVD in the UK,which led to me getting ready to see another painting by Argento.The plot:Walking around an art gallery, Det. Anna Manni finds herself overcome with the emotions expressed in the paintings,which leads to Manni fainting in the gallery.After a fellow visitor to the gallery called Alfredo Grossi helps her to regain consciousness,Manni rushes back to her hotel.Trying to make sense in her bedroom of what has taken place,Manni is suddenly gripped by Grossi,who slams her on the bed.Taking a razor blade out of his mouth,Grossi rapes Manni,and leaves his own permanent mark,by cutting a scar across her cheeks.Surviving the attack,Manni discovers that her attacker is a suspected serial rapist, who has also started to murder his victims.Tracking down Grossi,Manni soon discover that the scar he left her runs deeper than it originally appeared.View on the film:Reuniting with composer Ennio Morricone, (who gives a spidery score,designed to sound exactly the same played backwards or forwards!)Dario Argento gives the film a blistering opening,with the titles motif of cut lips,blood and razor blades giving this Giallo a strong,rather peculiar Freudian cut.Being the first Italian film to use CGI effects,Argento and cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno largely use the effects to show Manni's psychological breakdown,with the stylish scenes of Manni melting into paintings giving the title a supernatural quality,whilst Argento's attempts to mix the eye- catching,ultra stylised practical effects-made murder scenes with CGI reveals a film maker who is a bit too excited with his new toy.Taking a unique approach to the screenplay,Argento and co-writer Franco Ferrini place the viewer on an insider perspective to the unfolding mystery,by making the amateur sleuth a victim of the rapist/killer,and also uncovering the unknown murderers identity within the first 10 minutes.Whilst Argento does strike a bold note by solving the mystery early on,the Giallo elements are never able to fully recover,due to their being no mystery or tension of finding the "unknown" for the film to build upon,which leads to the Giallo elements plodding along to the finish line.Keeping away from giving the Giallo any sense of sexual excitement,Argento shows the rape of Manni in a horrific, aggressive manner,with Argento focusing on Manni's face to show the full effect that the attack (s) have on her.Pushing the Giallo element's to the side for the final 60 minutes,the writer's attempt to roll out a warped Film Noir,with Manni being shown as a tragic dame,who is slowly losing her mind. Disappointingly ,the writers fail to build any psychological depth to Manni during the opening hour,which leads to Manni's gradual fall into copying the person who destroyed her,lacking the emotional impact that the film desires.Whilst she does show a real sense of fury in Manni's case to track down Grossi (played with a real viciousness by Thomas Kretschmann- who would reunite with Dario Argento for Dracula 3D) ,Asia Argento gives a stilted performance as Manni,with Asia Argento feeling completely detached to the emotionally fragile events that Manni is experiencing,which leads to this being a Giallo which won't cause any viewers to faint.

LoneWolfAndCub Dario Argent is one of the finest directors of horror worldwide and has many fine films under his belt. Unfortunately The Stendhal Syndrome is not one of them. The 90's are seen as a weak era for Argento, personally I have only seen this and The Phantom of the Opera from this time, and I actually enjoyed the widely lambasted Phantom. Phantom, although far from perfect, was still an enjoyable movie with plenty of whacked out Argento touches. The Stendhal Syndrome, starring Dario's daughter Asia, has a promising story that ultimately goes nowhere, and with horrible CGI effects and slow pacing the movie fizzles out into nothing.The story centres on Detective Anna Manni (Argento) who is tracking down an elusive serial killer/rapist in Florence. To Anna's disadvantage she suffers from Stendhal's syndrome in which she gets bouts of dizziness and hallucinations when she is exposed to the sight of paintings and artistic masterpieces. The killer begins to target Anna, using her illness to his advantage.Argento creates an unsettling atmosphere throughout, this is definitely one of his darkest movies. Camera-work has always been one of Argento's strongest points, and this movie is no different. There are some fantastic shots here, the streets of Florence are dark and menacing, and there is a excellent sequence where a victim is stalked through a room of marble statues. Ennio Morricone's score is perfect, creating a suitably unsettling atmosphere.But these cannot save the movie from being generally uneven. The structure of the story is it's weakest point, with 2/3 of the movie dedicated to the serial killer and the last 1/3 to Anna. There are many points where nothing really happens in a movie that is character-driven. This, and shocking CGI in certain scenes where it really wasn't needed detract from what could have been really good.2/5

Jan Strydom For those that don't know I'm in the process of discovering Argento's films for the first time, THE STENDHAL SYNDROME is my third endeavor following OPERA which I didn't like and MOTHER OF TEARS better than OPERA but its no masterpiece and has a lousy ending.THE STENDHAL SYNDROME wasn't as much a horror film for me as it was more of a psychological thriller, it follows assistant police inspector Anna Manni (Asia Argento) who is on the trail of a sadistic serial killer/rapist (Thomas Kretschmann) who stalks, rapes and then murders his female victims, but Anna also has to content with the fact that she has a condition called the Stendhal syndrome, a condition that causes her to lose herself in powerful works of art.In a way I liked the film, more than both OPERA and MOTHER OF TEARS, it was more unconventional than a lot of other thrillers I've seen, the acting is actually good, the best performances in the film are given by Asia Argento and Thomas Kretschmann, the storyline is well thought out despite having the tendency to drag at times.So far things are looking interesting, I can clearly tell that Argento's films are not everyone's cup of tea but for me, this is the best Argento film I've seen so far but I still feel that I have yet to be impressed by Argento's films, STENDHAL SYNDROME was a good movie sure but it doesn't mean I haven't seen better, although there are still so many to see, so who knows.Overall, STENDHAL SYNDROME is a good psychological thriller, its clearly not for everyone but if you're also not familiar with Argento and you may or may not be a little curious give it a shot, see what you think.

tacmovies Story: Stendhal Syndrome is defined by good old wikipedia as being, "a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly beautiful or a large amount of art is in a single place," and that's the very first thing that our main protagonist, played by Asia Argento, experiences in this movie.(SPOILER HEAVY SYNOPSIS) She goes to an art museum and becomes overwhelmed by the art and forgets that she's a detective trying to track a rapist. This ends with the rapist finding her and doing to her what rapists do best. The rest of the movie is her playing cat and mouse with the rapist, as well as trying to psychologically deal with the combined trauma of being raped and her experience with Stendhal Syndrome. At no point is the audience convinced that Asia's character is sane, because immediately after succumbing to Stendhal Syndrome, prior to being raped, she forgets her name, job, and identity. We see her with the rapist, but we never see any other characters around. Because Asia's character has already shown a lack of sanity, we begin to wonder if there really is a rapist at all. (END SPOILERS) The storyline is crafted well enough and was decently original. I have to give this a B.Acting: There were some very strong performances here, and unfortunately I can't quite deduce which actor played which character, so I will have to identify them by their occupations. I was particularly impressed by the art student, the sort of boyfriend, and, well, the rapist himself (if I ever run for political office, I know that quote will come back to haunt me!) and Asia Argento gave a great, if slightly disturbing performance considering that this movie was directed by her FATHER! I mean, she gets beaten up, bloodied, does horrible things, goes crazy, and gets raped not once but twice in a very graphic manner... and her father was behind the camera? Entertaining, but creepy! B Direction: Dario Argento cast his daughter in this movie, the sick bastard! Besides that, the direction was pretty good overall. The audience felt disoriented with Asia's character and very much empathized with her along the way, even though they should be questioning her sanity throughout. B Visuals: This movie would not have worked without the art that was selected for the museum and Asia's home later in the movie. They all helped to create a surreal atmosphere. However, this was the first Italian movie to use CG... and it shows. The CG looks very bad and jarringly out of place when it appears. COverall: This is a decent little movie, even if it suggests deep rooted issues within the Argento family. It should have been shorter, but it's not in Transformers 2 territory of obscenely long. B