Dario Argento. That is a name which is highly revered when
and where conversations are held on the topic of the horror
genre. This is a man who has given us many classic Giallo
films, such as "Deep Red", "Suspiria", which is less of a
giallo then a supernatural thriller, and "Phenomena", which
I find one of his most hypnotic and best. Over the years,
Argento has slightly faded from view, still writting and
directing films, but films of lesser quality, and not as
classic as some of his others.

In 1987, Argento directed his last "great" giallo thriller.
That film was "Opera", retitled in America as "Terror at
the Opera", and it was Argento's first major flop in his
home country of Italy. The next project he attempted was
the two story anthology tale, "Two Evil Eyes", which was
co-directed by George A. Romero, creator of the zombie
classics "Night of the Living Dead" and it's sequel, "Dawn
of the Dead". Argento's segment in "Two Evil Eyes" was
"The Black Cat", and while is was inventive and decent
enough, it simply was the hardcore terror that we were used
to getting from the Master of Horror.

After taking a break from directing for a time, Argento
returned, taking on his first shot in America film. That
was "Trauma", a film which attempted to "americanize" the
director's very unique "Italian" ways of cinema. In turn
the film plays like a slasher film with the trimmings of
the giallo whodunnit? The film was not entirely successful
and Argento's next film was 1996's superb "The Stendhal
Syndrome", a twisted giallo which would reunite Argento
with his daughter, the actress Asia Argento, who was also
the lead in "Trauma".

"The Stendhal Syndrome" represents a change for Argento.
Many of his films are panned by critics as being overly
cinematic, lacking character development so that he can
devise truly magnificent shots with his camera, and that
my friends, is not a bad thing. But with this film, he has
turned over a new leaf, so to speak, and has decided to
concentrate on the actors, forming unique, realistic
characters, and following their psychological problems.
However, the film still retains some of the Argento flavor,
such as graphic gory violence, relegated to a few scenes
here and there, and some extraordinary camera tricks. This
is the "new" Argento, and I for one found this film to be
wonderful, but most casual horror fans will not enjoy it,
as many hardcore Argento fans found this to be too much,
and subsequently dismissed it.

"The Stendhal Syndrome" opens as Detective Anna Manni gets
a tip from a woman claiming that the rapist Anna is hunting
will be in Florence's Uffizi Museum. Anna arrives at the
museum, but begins suffering a breakdown as she views the
paintings, eventually fainting and splitting her lip on a
tabletop. She is assissted by a kind man, named Alfredo,
who helps he up, takes her outside, and gives her cab fare.

All is not well though, as Anna realizes that the rapist
she is searching for is now killing his victims, and after
she hallucinates stepping inside a painting, she finds that
Alfedo is in her hotel room, and he assaults her, tying her
to the bed, slicing her lip with a razor blade, and then
raping her, but he lets her live, after making her watch
him rape and shoot a young woman.

Sent on leave, Anna visits her family in a nearby town, but
is soon aware that Alfredo is stalking her. She attempts
to deal with the situation by visiting the psychiatrist,
Dr. Cavanna, who her boss, Inspector Manetti sends her to.
Marco Longhi, Anna's ex-lover, keeps a close eye on her
because he still loves her, although Anna makes clear she
no longer cares for him in that way. Even with things
going so well, Alfredo manages to kill the two guards
watching Anna, and kidnaps her, keeping her in a large
cave underneath a waterfall.

After another horrific rape, Alfredo leaves to go after yet
another girl, Anna believes she is going crazy, and passes
out. Alfredo returns, crouches low next to Anna, prepared
to rape her again, when she jams two box springs into his
throat, gouges one of his eyes out, shoots him, and tosses
his body into the river. Everyone, except Anna, believes
that Alfredo is finally good and gone. But not Anna, for
she is still plagued by phone calls and her fear rises to
the boiling point.

Still, Anna manages to kindle a sweet romance with a young
French man named Marie, and the two carry on, making Marco
quite jealous. But when Marie is killed, and Anna rushes
upon the scene, she knows that Alredo is still alive. But
will anyone else believe her?

"The Stendhal Syndrome" is a rich, psychologically complex
puzzle of twists and turns, even if the last twist to the
story is telegraphed far too early, letting the cat out of
the bag and spoiling an otherwise nice surprise. Argento
fills his film with beauteous images, such as when Anna
literally steps into a painting of a body of water, she
dives underneath, and kisses a fish. In another, Anna once
again steps into a painting, which turns into a crime scene
and we learn that Aldredo has gone from being a serial
rapist into a sadistic rapist/killer.

Argento has always been a stronger director/visual stylist
than he has ever a writer. Here he teams with Italian
giallo veteran Franco Ferrini, who also co-wrote Argento's
classic "Deep Red", and the two produce aan above average
script, with the source material being author Graziella
Magherini's "La Sindrome di Stendhal". I have never read
the novel the film was based on, but now that I have seen
the flick, I want to get my hands on the book and see just
how much of the material in the film is from the author's
imagination, and how much came from Argento's twisted mind.

The cast is a mixed bag, some perform better than others,
but none are excellent, partly due to some quite obvious
dubbing, even thought the film was shot in English, more
American sounding actors were used so that the film would
be viewed as more typically American. Asia Argento, quite
the opposite of what has been written in reviews about her,
acquits herself well in the role of the traumatized Anna;
she has to suffer through mysogynistic rape sequences, gets
slapped around, cut, bloodied, ect...And she delivers a
divine performance, despite the fact that even though she
speaks English quite well, her voice was dubbed in the
American release. Thomas Kretschmann is fantastically
evil as the homicidal Alfredo, and the fill lights up and
becomes brutally intense when he's onscreen, sadly, he's in
about half of the film. Marco Leonardi is okay as Marco,
Anna's ex-boyfriend, but he's only around to create some
minor conflict, and he especially suffers from a case of
poor dubbing in the American versions. Luigi Diberti is
suitable to the role of Inspector Manetti, Anna's caring
boss, but he serves only a small role. Paolo Bonacelli is
fine as Anna's psychiatrist Dr. Cavanna, who attempts to
help Anna deal with her rape and her case of "Stendhal's
Syndrome", which causes to to faint and hallucinate in the
presence of great works of art. Finally, the cheerful
Julien Lambroschini is Anna's new lover, Marie, and he's
pretty good, but he's only in and 20 minutes of so of the
film. All in all, the acting is fairly decent, but not
quite up the the level of acting usually featured in an
Argento film.

Ennio Morricone, a veteran in the film music industry,
supplies the music for the film, and in a word, it's great.
My favorite, and the best piece of music, would have to be
what is known as "The Stendhal Theme", which is a haunting,
yet lyrical, and somewhat ominous piece of music, and it is
featured prominently in the film. Morricone creates what
is one of the most memorable film scores for a horror film
since maybe John Carpenter's "Halloween" in 1978. This
just goes to show you how important as creating mood a
horror film score, or any film score, can be.

The beautiful cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno is good
to look as, as we have much to watch on screen. The scenes
where Anna's "Stendhal Syndrome" is in full effect are
escpecially shot well, and coupling this with Morricone's
excellent, first rate score jazzes the picture up a little
bit. Another well shot sequence occurs when Anna breaks
free of Alfredo's sadistic hold, and it ratchets ups the
levels of tension so high, you think your head is going to
explode.

Sergio Stivaletti, a mainstay of many of Argento's films,
provides the special gore effects. He was working with
a sizable budget apparantly, because the gore effects look
well polished, unlike some cheesy shots in earlier films
he's done. We get to witness the aforementioned double
neck puncture with bed springs, eyegouging, a woman shot
through both cheeks, and several bloody after the fact
bodies. While not nearly as all out gory as some of the
earlier Argento-Stivaletti flicks, this one should have
enough blood and guts to satisfy most gorehounds.

I must make mention of that ending once again. I won't be
revealing it like some other critics on the web, because I
don't like to spoil the surpise in films for those who have
not yet been able to see them, so I will proceed quite
carefully so as not to divulge the exact details of the
ending. As it stands, I think that the final resolution
was included because Argento/Ferrini/Magherini though it
would throw readers/viewers for a loop. Sadly, it doesn't
because I knew how it would end, far, far ahead of it
actually happening. That said, I still find several things
to like about the film.

So, was this Dario Argento's triumphant return to his roots
in the giallo/horror/thriller genre? Yes and no. It has
it's strong points such as the nice acting job from young
Asia, excellent effects work from Sergio Stivaletti, a top
notch Ennio Morricone score, and some awesomely intense
murder sequences. While not a great as some would make it
out to be, it's nowhere near as bad as it's detractors want
you to believe it is. In the end, I think that Dario
Argento's "The Stendhal Syndrome" should be considered a
minor classic in his canon of filmwork.

"The Stendhal Syndrome" is Unrated for strong gory violence
including rape sequences and for language and for some
intense images.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age