Claudio Carvalho In Rome, Police Inspector Manetti (Luigi Diberti) assigns detective Anna Manni (Asia Argento) to travel to Florence to investigate and track down a rapist serial-killer to understand why he did not kill his three victims from Florence. However Anna suffers from "Stendhal's Syndrome" and she faints in a museum while watching the paintings and the killer lures and rapes her. The disturbed Anna changes her behavior and has sessions with the psychiatrist Dr. Cavanna (Paolo Bonacelli) that suggests that she should spend a couple of days with her family in the countryside. However the maniac is obsessed with her and she stays under the protection of Detective Marco Longhi (Marco Leonardi), who has feelings for her, and his team. But soon the serial-killer abducts Anna, ties her to a mattress and rapes her again in an isolated cave used by junkies. Anna learns that his name is Alfredo Grossi (Thomas Kretschmann) and she succeeds to release; when Alfredo returns, she shots him in the stomach and blinds one of his eyes. Then she drops his moribund body in a waterfall. However the police does not find the corpse. Anna has the feeling that Alfred is alive, and when there is another victim, she is sure that he has not died."La sindrome di Stendhal" is a psychological thriller by Dario Argento with magnificent cinematography and haunting music score by Ennio Morricone. The story is based on the "Stendhal's Syndrome", unknown for most of the viewers and in accordance with the Wikipedia, is "is a psychosomatic disorder that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to an experience of great personal significance, particularly viewing art." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal_syndrome). The problem is Asia Argento's character, presented too fragile and confused for a police detective. Anna Manni should have been developed before the event with the rapist serial-killer. The surprising plot point is a big surprise for the audience. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Síndrome Mortal" ("Mortal Syndrome")

LeonLouisRicci If You have Never seen a Dario Argento Movie, do not Start with this Underrated Film that was made during the Director's So Called "decline". It was Unfortunately and Unfairly Held Up Next to His most Accomplished and Artistic and Critically Acclaimed Groundbreaking Movies.This is Certainly not the Best Argento but it is Typical in many ways and Proclaims a Style and Color Blazing Palette that is at the Core of the Director's Work. This Film is Filled with Gorgeous and Disturbing Images and is a Surreal Template Laid Upon a Standard Serial Killer Story with a Predictable Twist.But it isn't the Predictability of the Twist that is Key, it is the Twisted Tone and Penetrating Violence that is what this Movie is about. It is Entering the Traumatized Mind of a Rape Victim who is Brutalized in Graphic Detail that Results in a Syndrome on top of a Syndrome. This has Stood the Test of Time and can now be Considered along with some Other Argento Films as a Worthy Entry in the Best of the Directors Output. So After You have seen some of the Director's Early Work and If You were Entertained by those from this Bizarre Talent and Filmmaking Innovator, than this one will be No Different in its Diabolical Method of Movie Madness.Added Bonus…Asia Argento is a Captivating Presence.

BA_Harrison As a fan of Dario Argento's distinctively bold film-making techniques, I can find little to get excited about in his 90s output: it was the decade that the director seemed to lose his creative mojo, the three (and a half) films he made during that period lacking the innovation and magic of his previous work.The Stendhal Syndrome, which followed the disappointing Trauma (1993), features a typically bizarre plot that offers plenty of potential but fails to hit the mark in almost every possible way: gone are Argento's cleverly orchestrated scenes of hyper-stylised violence, only to be replaced by uncharacteristically tawdry scenes of rape and sadism; there's little evidence of the director's trademark stunning visuals to help distract the viewer from the dull and uneven pacing (the creaky CGI just doesn't cut it); and the overall enjoyment factor is further hampered by a unlikeable central performance from Dario's daughter Asia. Even Ennio Morricone's score seems lacking.Argento's final film of the 90s, The Phantom of the Opera, also failed to please the majority of his fans (although I actually quite enjoyed it for its sheer absurdity). The new millennium saw a slight return to form with Non Ho Sonno (AKA Sleepless) and The Card Player, but the negative critical reception of Giallo and Mother of Tears suggests that his best days are long gone.

oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx There's a rapist on the loose in this movie, we've no idea why, we never find out why. It's not a whodunnit, it's not a procedural, just what on earth is it? It seems Dario simply wanted to play around filming his daughter in bizarre and perilous situations, hopefully with an admixture of paintings and objets d'art. It's a perverse film really, it's all daughter fixation, the other characters are paper thin, the rapist/killer more a force of nature. If you wanted to look at it as an experimental film, and focus more on what was going on behind the camera rather than in front, maybe you could get a lot out of it (Stendhal Syndrome would make a good double bill with Serge Bromberg's reconstruction of Henri-Georges Clouzot's unfinished movie Inferno, which is made from basically hours of screen test fixating on Romy Schneider). I confess that I think most people would get nothing out of this movie other than an aching ass. Viewed conventionally it's a ship full of holes, but if and once you realise you're OK with swimming down to Davy Jones' locker in conch apparel, it's quite the Epicurean experience.Some of the movie is in Rome, some Viterbo, some Florence. Dario obviously wanted to shoot museums in these three places, and so contrived the plot to do that, but without much craft at all. The plot really becomes downright damned weird and even includes psychic transference.I just love the start of Stendhal Syndrome, the Ennio Morricone soundtrack is quite creepy and we see Detective Anna Manni (Asia Argento) freaking out at the Uffizi, because of the power of the paintings, literally falling into Pieter Breughel's painting The Fall of Icarus. I love paintings so I really dig all of that, I spent a lot of time looking at Caravaggio's Medusa when I went to the Uffizi, when I was a kid the idea of Medusa's head used to scare the hell out of me. The Morricone motif overlayed for the Caravaggio is nightmarish. There's another great scene in a grafittoed grotto which mirrors the Uffizi stuff.I have to admit that getting to the end of this movie has been a little project of mine. For some reason I always fall asleep during Dario's more sprawling films. There's half an hour of fat to be trimmed off this one, and Four Flies on Grey Velvet I've totally given up on, four times asleep, even though the last attempt on the summit was at midday on a Sunday.And I have to be honest with you dear user (big on admissions today) I found the scene when Anna presses her boyfriend up against the wall and fondles him (and more) to be really very erotic.It's a god-damned mess, but I finally got through it. If you would welcome the thick-lipped kiss of oblivion for a moment, and aren't wound up too tight about production values, you could give this a go.