| "Dario's finest film since the classic 'Inferno'!" |
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| aka LA SINDROME DI STENDHAL STENDHAL'S SYNDROME (1996) 114 mins MEDUSA FILM ; ITALY |
| [video - laserdisc - dvd] | [artwork][photo][trailer][info][slideshow] |
| click here for French DVD review click here for us dvd review click here for dutch dvd review click here for italian dvd review click here for uk dvd review click here for IMDb user comments |
| On the trail of a deranged serial rapist and killer, detective Anna Manni (Asia Argento) hides her own secret - she suffers from the Stendhal Syndrome, a mental condition which makes her retreat into frightening hallucinations when confronted with works of art. Her quarry, Alfredo Grossi (Thomas Kretchmann), discovers her condition, using it against Anna to reduce her to a helpless victim subjected to his savage, relentless attacks, turning her into a powerless witness to his murder spree. |  |
| With her mind in tatters she finally manages to turn the tables on her tormentor, seemingly extracting hideous revenge. But, needless to say, it does not end there... This is a strange film even though Argento is in familiar territory. It seems to consist of two distinct halves. The first part is vintage Argento, not since 'Tenebrae' have we seen such great moments of technical wizardry. Anna's first journey into a painting is realised well with sparing use of computer graphics to give a real impression of entering another world. Mind you, when she kisses a giant fish it goes a bit awry! |
| There follows some great moments - as Anna swallows some pills we follow their journey down her throat, from the inside, we see Alfredo revolving a razor blade in his mouth before he rapes Anna and best of all, we get to see a bullet go right through a women's face in slow motion from the inside! Unfortunately, Sergio Stivaletti's grasp of CGI makes these moments look decidedly crude although he just about gets away with it. |  |
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Asia gives a great performance and you really sympathise with her character especially during these harrowing scenes. The capture of Anna and her subsequent violent, gory escape are really the last moments of action. The atmosphere that is skillfully built up seems to gradually disappear as if Argento ran out of enthusiasm for the film and didn't quite know how to finish it. However, Asia handles the gradual decent into madness brilliantly with her character taking on a new persona. |
| Viewed another way, at least Argento has the courage to end the film the way he wanted to. The fact that Anna suffers from the Stendhal Syndrome is not really explored as much as it could have been though, leaving somewhat of a wasted opportunity. |
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reviewed by NJD |
| credits | |
| cast: | Asia Argento, Thomas Kretchmann, Marco Leonardi, Luigi Diberti, Julien Lambroschini, John Quentin, Franco Diogene |
| director: | Dario Argento |
| producer: | Giuseppe Colombo |
| screenplay: | Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini |
| cinematography: | Giuseppe Rotunno |
| music: | Ennio Morricone |
| sfx: | Sergio Stivaletti |
| technical information | |
| negative: | 35mm |
| print: | 35mm |
| aspect ratio: | 1.66:1 |
| format: | Spherical |
| [artwork][photo][french trailer][info][slideshow] |
| buy the stendhal syndrome dvd from www.amazon.com |
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