Das Stendhal Syndrom (1996)

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

Writers:

Graziella Magherini (novel), Dario Argento (story)

Stars:

Asia Argento, Thomas Kretschmann, Marco Leonardi

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Asia Argento	...	Det. Anna Manni
Thomas Kretschmann	...	Alfredo Grossi
Marco Leonardi	...	Marco Longhi
Luigi Diberti	...	Insp. Manetti
Paolo Bonacelli	...	Dr. Cavanna
Julien Lambroschini	...	Marie
John Quentin	...	Anna's father
Franco Diogene	...	Victim's husband
Lucia Stara	...	Shop assistant
Sonia Topazio	...	Victim in Florence
Lorenzo Crespi	...	Giulio
Vera Gemma	...	Policewoman
John Pedeferri	...	Hydraulic engineer
Veronica Lazar	...	Marie's mother
Mario Diano	...	Coroner

Storyline

Anna Manni is a policewoman trying to capture a vicious serial rapist and killer. The problem is that she suffers from "Stendhal's syndrome", a psychosomatic disease that gives her dizziness and hallucinations when she is exposed to the sight of paintings and artistic masterpieces. When the maniac lures her into a trap inside Florence's famous Uffizi museum, her troubles are just beginning...

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Plot Keywords:

policewoman | trap | rapist | museum | hallucination | 

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

Troma

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

26 January 1996 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Das Stendhal Syndrom

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

$3,800,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Medusa Film, Cine 2000

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Thomas Kretschmann was cast as Alfredo Grossi because Dario Argento had seen him working with star Asia Argento on the set of Queen Margot (1994). Argento was impressed enough by Kretschmann that he would later think of him for the role.

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Goofs

Though featuring prominently during the film's opening sequence set at the Uffizi in Florecne, Peter Bruegel's 'Landscape with the Fall of Icarus' is actually housed at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.

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Connections

Referenced in Scream: The Inside Story (2011)

User Reviews

Through the looking-glass darkly

What makes up the singular pleasure that is Dario Argento? Maybe it's the crossroads where High Romanticism and hardcore porn meet. (I'm referring to the feeling of his work--not the images.) Argento seems doomed, like Peckinpah and like Lynch, to have summed up his world-view in a single masterpiece, the 1977 SUSPIRIA; the thrillers that came before and the low-budget shockers that came after may offer delights, but nothing close to that unity of vision.

Seeing THE STENDHAL SYNDROME projected in Los Angeles, I was struck with newfound sympathy for the Star Wars fans protesting way too much in favor of THE PHANTOM MENACE. If you love THE STENDHAL SYNDROME, you love Argento, and that is that--you may see the flaws, but they don't ruin your pleasure. The picture has too many Achilles heels to enumerate here, but what's important is that nobody in world cinema today is wrestling with his soul in the psychosexual mire the way Argento does. He puts his misogynistic demons and his almost sentimental compassion right out there; and only Cronenberg has such a direct pipeline to his own unconscious. Not to mention the fabulous, cascading images--Argento's stock-in-trade is Victorian Liebestod, Edward Gorey gone porno, and THE STENDHAL SYNDROME has sequences that rank with his best.

The sketchy thing about STENDHAL SYNDROME, like the maestro's TRAUMA, is his use of his daughter, Asia Argento, in scenes one cannot imagine a father watching, much less filming. Whatever memoirs come down the pike twenty years later, it must be said: Argento for certain lets it all hang out, and the land-mined terrain he maps is, to my taste, thrilling.