The Stendhal Syndrome

1996 [ITALIAN]

Horror / Mystery / Thriller

18
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 51% · 10 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 51% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.0/10 10 9810 9.8K

art killer rapist policewoman brutal

Plot summary

A young policewoman slowly goes insane while tracking down an elusive serial rapist/killer through Italy when she herself becomes a victim of the brutal man's obsession.

Director

Dario Argento Photo
Dario Argento

Top cast

Asia Argento Photo
Asia Argento as Det. Anna Manni
Franco Diogene Photo
Franco Diogene as Victim's husband
Marco Leonardi Photo
Marco Leonardi as Marco Longhi
Vera Gemma Photo
Vera Gemma as Policewoman
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
1.07 GB
1280*694
Italian 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 59 min
Seeds 7
2.2 GB
1920*1040
Italian 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 59 min
Seeds 23

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by carolinephillips-47427 6 / 10

Falling Into A Painting

The Stendhal Syndrome is said to be a disorder where, upon viewing works of art, a person suffers from chills, anxiety attacks, and hallucinations where they believe they're actually in the paintings themselves. Don't ask me how real or common this disorder is since I'm not a doctor, but it sure makes for an interesting case study in Dario Argento's The Stendhal Syndrome.Anna Manni (Asia Argento) is an Italian police detective who goes to an art museum due to an phone tip from a woman claiming that she knows a serial rapist and murderer will be there. Once there, Anna suffers from an attack of Stendhal and ends up getting knocked out. When she comes to, a man is there and he follows her back to her room, rapes her, and kidnaps her, forcing her to watch him murder another victim. She flees from the scene, but the worst is yet to come.It's hard to talk about this film without spoiling everything, but let's just say that the character of Anna goes through several transitions throughout the film. The 1st act of the film is pretty gripping and the 2nd act isn't terrible either, but by the 3rd act, you get the feeling like they don't know how to wrap this up so they're just stalling and making up stuff to distract us from the fact that the movie hasn't cleared for landing yet. By the end, you'll definitely be left scratching your head and wishing they'd have just ended it a half hour sooner.Asia Argento isn't ideally suited for the role either and only seems to really come to life during the 2nd act where she adopts a touch, butch persona. She seems uncomfortable in the 1st and 3rd acts. There are also some questionable CGI effects throughout that take you out of the movie and it's not as stylish as many of Dario Argento's other works.
Reviewed by ernesti 5 / 10

Fantastic atmospheric music score but the film isn't that fantastic

Argento had seen his better days as a movie director and surely it's not easy to top such masterpieces such as Suspiria and The Inferno.Asia Argento as detective Anna Manni isn't the best casting choice but as an actress she certainly did her best. It's difficult to believe that she really is a police detective at such a young age. It's obvious that a more mature actress should have been cast. Nevertheless that obscurity could have been used to make the film better. Would it be a better film if Anna Manni was just a woman living in her delusions.The film certainly had it's moments but on the other hand it has some annoying flaws such as very bad cgi effects. Why use experimental effects if they look dumb. They should have gone back in time to the 70's or 80's how they made the effects without computers.Ennio Morricone's score is amazing though and certainly does a big favor for the film's atmosphere. To sum it up this film is watchable even for Argento fans but it isn't anything like his films used to be. It's really evident that Italian film industry had been in a recession since the late 80's.
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