The Stendhal Syndrome

R1 DVD

Blue Underground 2007

2 Disc Special Edition

The Stendhal Syndrome was a classic return to Giallo by Dario Argento, made in 1996 it was generally only seen in edited forms. While in recent times Argento has been more celebrated for his horror, in my mind The Stendhal Syndrome is quite a startling work which is very much underappreciated and this 2 disc uncut, high definition edition is an impressive release.

The film opens in a superbly bewildering manner. We see an attractive woman nervously racing to get into a museum and then becoming overwhelmed by the art, experiencing confusion and disorientation leading to hallucinations. She then collapses as she feels she is drawn into one of the paintings and is experiencing what it describes. She is helped to her feet by the museum staff but has lost her handbag, when it is returned by a very attractive blond gentlemen, it is missing her I.D. She returns to her hotel room (which he only remembers by the key in her purse) and is suffering from temporary amnesia. She is able discover her name but little else. We later learn she suffers from Stendhal Syndrome, a psychological condition that causes confusion, disorientation, dizziness and even hallucinations in certain people when they gaze at works of art, especially larger collections.

As she regains her memory, we find she is Anna Mannie (Asia Argento), a police detective from Florence, Italy who is on the trail of a rapist. He is brutal and cunning and has killed his last two victims; it seems she went to the Uffiz Gallery after receiving a tipoff that the killer would be in the gallery. She does not realize that the killer made the call (disguising his voice) and is stalking her, indeed the stranger who assisted her to the taxi was the killer himself.

Alfredo (Thomas Kretschmann), then breaks into her room, attacks and brutally rapes her and forces her to watch him raping and killing another woman in front of her. She escapes but is placed under psychological care and placed on stress leave in her family’s village. However, once again, she is stalked. This time Alfredo kills the two policemen guarding her and takes her to an isolated location where he rapes and beats her in the most brutal fashion. When he leaves her to return to the city to undertake another killing she experiences the Stendhal Syndrome again this time with the junkies paintings on the walls, in fury she breaks free and waits for Alfredo. When he returns she smashes the springs from the bed into his neck, pokes out his eye and shoots him in the chest and to be sure he is dead rolls him bleeding into the river ! Since the river flows into many systems, his body is not immediately discovered.

She returns to her therapy and meets a young French Art professor with whom she begins an affair. But strange phone calls begin to occur once again and she seems to be taking on a new personality. Is Alfredo still alive or is something more terrible at play ?

The Stendhal Syndrome is a fascinating journey into the effects of rape and the nature of the mind . The Syndrome itself is a real one and gives the film a sense of authenticity, the use of the syndrome as a way to explore the emotional effect of visual images and sound creates a environment which is both lush and beautiful and at the same time frightening and bewildering. Argento has used colour and sound to incredible effect to create a visual background to what is essentially a psychological study of the effects of rape. The violence is brutally depicted and while the climax is perhaps predictable it is nevertheless successful.

The best release is the two disc set from Blue Underground, the film itself is uncut and of the highest quality with the high definition transfer being supervised by the cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno. Since both the music and sound effects are so significant in this film it is great to note the care that has been taken with the presentation. The English tracks are offered in both Dolby Digital 5.1 EX, 2.0 stereo, and a 6.1 DTS and the Italian (with very clear optional) subtitles in Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0

Disc 2 includes all sorts of extras. It opens with a 20-minute interview with Dario Argento. The second interview is with psychoanalyst and author Graziella Magherini, who named the Stendhal Syndrome and from whose book Argento gained inspiration for the film. There are also interviews with effects creator Sergio Stivaletti, assistant director Luigi Cozzi, and production designer Massimo Antonello Geleng.