Almost five years ago I began my love affair (cinematically speaking) with Italian director Dario Argento. A man who is known for balancing the dichotomy of brilliance and beauty with the disturbed and violent I immediately recognized the genius of his work. I’m not sure how many female fans there are of this director but I became one of them. I find his work isn’t nearly as demeaning to women as critics love to assert. If there were truth to those accusations Stendhal Syndrome would be exhibit A as this is probably one of his more violent films in many regards. This movie is extremely brutal and within the first thirty minutes you are exposed to uncomfortable violence and one of the scariest psychopaths ever put to screen.

Let me start off by saying Stendhal Syndrome is not one of his best films. In reality as a cohesive whole it has far too many flaws to stand up to classics like Suspiria, Deep Red or Tenebrae. Yet its definitely a film that has visuals and uncomfortable moments that will linger. Stendhal Syndrome is quite long and basically end up almost playing like two separate movies. The first act is about the obsession, traumatic cat and mouse game of two adversaries. The second is….well….hard to describe really. If this movie had ended after the first act it would be one of his best.

Stendhal Syndrome is the story of a young police woman named Anna Manni (Asia Argento who has gone to Florence, Italy in order to track down a dangerous serial killer. She follows a lead and ends up in an art museum where she finds herself experiencing strange hallucinations. After her bizarre experience she is disoriented and confused but manages to find her way back to her hotel. This is when the real nightmare begins to unfold. Soon Anna finds herself in the grasp of the vicious predator (Thomas Kretschmann) she’s trying to track down. The story has many more elements to it but to explain much more of the plot would be to give everything away.

This film is considerably different than any of Argento’s other films. He is best known for either his Giallo films, which are basically gorier and more elaborate Hitchcock type films, and films exploring the supernatural such as Suspiria. Stendhal Syndrome is actually neither of these types of films. It explores a combination of psychological factors such as the effects of trauma. The films riveting nature comes from the performance of Thomas Kretschmann as the sadistic psychopath. His performance is nothing short of chilling. It’s rare you can say an Argento film has fantastic performances but in this case he is astonishingly good at his role. The only role of a male lead in Argento film that could rival his performance is possibly Oscar winner Adrian Brody when he stars in Giallo this year. Argento does a nice job with her role as well.

Overall, this would be a film I would only recommend to genre fans and Argento fans specifically. I would recommend several other of his films to someone before this one. If you have never seen a Dario Argento film this is not the place to start. Still I find this movie a very intriguing, but very disturbing piece of work. I've seen it twice and both times I found it had the same impact.  The film is an unsettling one. Argento films some truly brilliant moments and does so with a lack of restraint one can either admire or admonish.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age