The Stendhal Syndrome

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic visuals
Review: Dario Argento really knows how to bombard the viewer's senses with insane violence that seems almost sureal. The plot is good, but becomes cluttered and unbelievable towards the end. Still, a great film that should be admired for it's style, not necessarily it's storyline.

Rating:
Summary: You will be freaked
Review: This is one of the best Argento Movies ever. The music though simple stays with you. There are few plot holes unlike most Agrento Moives. The ending is a definite twist! I hope Troma releases the UNCUT version of Stendhal Syndrome because there really is no place to cut the movie without losing some of the impact and Plot points

Rating:
Summary: A MASTERPIECE! Brilliant and disturbing.1 of Argento's Best!
Review: Italian "Master of Horror",Dario Argento brings us one of his most frightening and realistic films to date. Argento's own daughter, the very beautiful Asia Argento gives an amazing and very chilling performance as a policewoman working with the Anti-Rape league in Rome,Italy.While tracking down a serial rapist in an art museum she succumbs to an illness known as the "Stendhal Syndrome", an actual affliction named after one of the first reported cases. The illnes causes certain people to become emerced in and hallucinate when in the presents of works of art. After fainting from such an experience, Anna(Asia Argento) is attacked by the rapist she was on the trail of in an extremely unnerving scene,which may be too much for some viewers. The film then takes a drastic change from Dario Argento's early works, which mainly focused on the search for a serial killer knocking off victims one by one. Instead this movie focuses on the victim of a horrible crime and how it dramatically alters and overwelms every aspect of their lives from then on. As the suprises and shocks hit you one after the other Argento showers the screen with some amazing vsual effects and the breathtaking scenery of his beloved Italy. The director apparently took this film as an opportunity to showcase and show-off Italy's proud and wonderous art history (and who could blame him?). Great works of art whirl by you in such a way that you may even experience a case of the Stendhal Syndrome yourself. A beautiful and dark modern "film noir" with an enchanting score by the legendary Ennio Morricone, Stendhal Syndome is truly a one of a kind film exprience from a great director who proves he still has a few tricks up his sleeve. Asia Argento SHOULD have won an Academy Award for her outstanding performance. She is without a doubt one of the best young actress working today.

Rating:
Summary: The Stendhal Syndrome-A Disappointment
Review: After reading the reviews and synopsis here on Amazon (which is the same as on the back of the DVD), I thought that this looked like it would be a very good movie with a promising plot. Within the first fifteen minutes, however, it was not at all as I expected. First, the summary stated that Anna Manni (a police investigator played by Asia Argento, daughter of the director and one of the only redeeming features of this movie) was hot on the trail of a serial killer/rapist and would be captured because of an attack of the Stendhal Syndrome. This is misleading because this actually happens early on in the movie (before any of her tracking him down is shown). In other words, if you are expecting to see a movie about a beautiful, strong-willed police detective that is trying to capture a serial killer, this is NOT the movie for you. Instead it is [mostly] a journey into the mind of a greatly disturbed (possibly psychotic) rape victim.

The overall quality of this movie is also not nearly as great as it's director's reputation. This is my first Dario Argento movie, and it is a grave disappointment. After hearing of the "Argento Genius," I really expected a movie with great editing, dialogue and at least a decent horror movie style soundtrack. This movie instead is the opposite on all counts. Finally, the style presented leaves a lot to be desired. It is basically a mashing together of sci-fi, horror, drama, and even romance that doesn't quite work (some parts are so outlandish I could not help but laugh).

In short, save your money for a worthier movie that does not follow a flawed script to begin with, and that is not an attempt at such "stylistic" filmmaking.


Rating:
Summary: Definitely flawed, but worth seeing if you're a fan. 2.5/5
Review: I've seen this movie only once, and only a couple of days ago, but details are becoming vaguer and vaguer in my mind. This is never a good sign. It was watchable, definitely, and it generated a very strong, surreal atmosphere throughout the first half, but it fails to go anywhere terribly interesting, and gets increasingly dull as the film goes along. It's still worth seeing if you're a fan of Dario Argento, but if you aren't there are a helluva lot of others films you need to see first.

The film stars Asia Argento as a detective on the track of a serial rapist/murderer, who becomes the victim said criminal shortly after she is succumbs to the Stendhal Syndrome.(i.e. a strong physical reaction to a piece of art. Fainting is the symptom in her case) There's not much of a plot-arc here, as after the setup it is just sort of a portrait of her life, as she takes a turn for the nutty after her experience, and is again victimized by the still at-large killer. Much of the early film is quite compelling, as Asia lives in a world somewhere between reality in fantasy, where she walks in and out of paintings, accompanied by Ennio Morricone's repetitive and haunting score. However, the more surreal aspects of the film are de-emphasized in the latter portions, and are, sadly, not replaced by increased plot development or action. And, even the effective earlier portions tends to be less effective than his Dario's best work. My problem with the second half is probably heightened by the fact that I stumbled across what happens at the end of the film before actually viewing it. However, this is true of most of the Argento films I've seen, and none of the others have faultered in the latter portions to nearly the same extent. Beyond this, the hints as to the conclusion of the film are so incredibly blatant that I suspect most viewers will have no difficulty figuring it out long before the ending, though I certainly couldn't say for certain.(I'm also perhaps a bit influenced some of the reviews I've read before hand, which said that it started pretty strong but got boring by the second half. But I kinda doubt this effected me too much. There just isn't anything of interest going on in most of the second half of the film.)

Many people have talked about how disturbing the rape-scenes in this film are. Personally I'm not affected by them much. I guess this is because rape is, presumably, most disturbing and painful from a psychological standpoint, and I just can't connect that way. But, lots of people are disturbed by them, so consider yourself warned. This is a different sort of thriller than most of Argento's most famous work, so there is less of an emphasis on the horror set-piece. What this comes down to is that there aren't any really effective horror or violence related scenes in the film. Most horribly, they use some absolutely hideous computer animation for some gore and other visual effects. If you can't afford decent CGI, don't use it, for God's sake!

The acting is a mixed bag, as usual. Asia is acceptable, if not amazing, other than in the scenes where she is supposed to be 'tough' which she can't pull of at all. The rapist is pretty good too, very creepy while still seeming more or less human. No one else in the film is worthy of particular mention.

As many have said, the DVD does look rather crappy, though it isn't quite as bad as I'd imagined considering just how maligned it is.(It's not far off, however) Still, if you're expecting something like the various Anchor Bay releases of Dario Argento's films your gonna be in for a nasty surprise.

Definitely subpar, but with enough effective aspects to make it worth checking out, it you're into this sort of stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Flawed Copy but Interesting Movie
Review: This certainly isn't one of Dario's classics, but the presence of Dario's daughter Asia in the central role, certainly raises the quality and interest of the film. She is a solid actor and good fun to watch on screen. Admittedly the plot is somewhat loose in parts, but this is typical of the Dario Argento style, and this movie certainly has the hallmarks of one of his films. There is a fair degree of blood and guts but nothing too torturous to get worked up about. I'd say it's about on par with most of his other efforts in this regard and perhaps a little less confronting. As others have mentioned the quality of the film on this DVD is quite poor. It looks very much like it was filmed on video rather than real film. The colours are washed out and the image is grainy rather than sharp. This is somewhat of an Achilles heel because Dario's movies draw much of their power from their vivid often somewhat surrealistic imagery. When you are watching a diminished copy like this, you just don't notice the cinematography. Hopefully, as others have said, a better copy is still to be released.

Rating:
Summary: Horrible DVD Quality, Interesting Movie
Review: Troma should feel ashamed by the horrible quality of this DVD. Argento's films are usually released on Anchor Bay, who does a stellar job with the transfers. This DVD, though, is so full of artifacts in dark scenes that it felt like I was watching a 5 year old video from a rental store. It also didn't feel like it was a FULL letterbox version as parts of the opening credits were cut off on the left and right edges.
One of the interviews was OK, but it was really an interview all about Argento's 'Phantom of the Opera'. The other interviews were extremely cheesy as they weren't even done in person -- it was just Dario holding a microphone answering questions that were coming to him over the phone.
The movie is quite interesting and better than I expected. It deserves a much better DVD than this extremely cheesy production from Troma, though. Movie gets a 4/5, DVD gets a 1/5.

Rating:
Summary: deep but disturbing
Review: I am a little torn on how to judge Dario Argento's "The Stendhal Syndrome". The movie is about a Rome police inspector Anna Manni (director Dario's daughter, Asia Argento; who seems a bit young to play a police detective), who is assigned to the anit-rape unit. Manni's current case is to track down a serial rapist and killer who is stalking girls in Rome and Florence. The killer finds her in an art museum. While she is there, she falls victom to the stendhal syndrome (that is, having a physical reaction to a powerful emotional piece of art) which catches the attention of the killer. Shortlyu there after, Anna is captured and savagly raped and beaten by the killer. The attack leaves her seriously damaged mentally and emotionally. She now must hurt and mutalate herself just to feel. While on vacation, Anna is captured and tortured again by the killer, but this time mangaes to escape and kill the man. But this only leads to deeper despair. "Stendhal" has it's good points and it has it's bad points. Well, first the good. This is a powerfully disturbed movie; unflinching and brutal. I must praise Ms. Argento for having the guts to play such a demanding role; what she lacks in talent (and she dose lack), she makes up for in courage and effort to play on such raw emotions. She has made a career out of playing victoms who, after they are damaged in whatever way, can only respond to new world with equal amount of venom. The violence is very disturbing, not so much the amount of gore (although there is plenty of that), but because it is so mean spirited. However, if you're a Dario Argento fan, you're probably, um, if not used to it, at least you're expecting it. Now onto the bad. Structurely, the movie seems disjointed. At first it is a serial killer movie, and then it is a tour through the mind of victom turned killer Anna. The twist of having Anna turned into the killer at the end seemed a little strange, but I guess it isn't too terrible a streach. The acting is pretty bad, but I blame dubbing the language from Italian to English. The movie also has long straches where seemingly nothing happens. This scene is the most offensive: Manni's partner and sometime lover comes over and tries to suduce her right after her first rape. How insensitive can the jerk be! But as if that wasn't bad enough, Anna turns the table on him and psudo-rapes him! How very disturbing. All in all, this is an Italian horror film, so it is intensly violent and gory. But it is Dario Argento, who knows that the more scary violence is done to the mind, not nessisarily the body.

Rating:
Summary: Seriously good psychological thriller
Review: CONTAINS ONE MINOR SPOILER
The Stendhal Syndrome was the second movie I saw by Dario Argento. Since then I've become a huge fan of his work. Many people find this multi-layered thriller to be one of his failures and I find that hard to believe. Granted, it's more character driven than most of his movies tend to be and the movie's pace and athmosphere change dramatically in the second half. Still, I found out that it's got a lot of his trademarks (having now viewed all his movies except Four flies on grey velvet, which I can't find anywhere). It's stylish as hell, with great use of artworks (as metaphors that is; the scene where Asia covers herself in paint had me wondering), the music score is excellent (by Ennio Morricone; not Goblin) and the violence is at times extreme (the rape scenes particularly, since you know Asia's father is directing them).
The real difference with this film considering Dario's other films is the psychological undertone. I have watched this movie now three times and I'm always seeing something I didn't figure out the last time. That's what great complex thrillers do, they always keep you wondering. This is without a doubt Dario Argento's most complex film, it demands the audience pay attention to what's happening. As far as psychological thrillers go, this one ranks high.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible DVD of an impressive film
Review: The Stendhal Syndrome is an effective, stylish thriller from horror maestro Dario Argento. The film alone would rate at least 4 (out of 5 stars)but the Troma DVD is pretty appalling. The audio is hissy and the volume low and the picture is incorrectly letterboxed and riddled with digital artifacts. If the DVD weren't bad enough it's made even worse by having a horrible, embarrassing introduction and foolish, faux interviews with Troma president Lloyd Kaufman. A good film is severely cheapened by a garbage presentation. A big, fat ZERO for the disc. Hopefully, Blue Undergroud or Anchor Bay will be able to obtain the rights soon.