Rish's Reviews
A fairly recent Argento picture, La Sindrome di Stendhal tells the story of Anna Manni (Asia Argento), a young policewoman (policegirl, actually) on the trail of an elusive serial killer. While tracking him in a Florence museum, she experiences a sort of fugue state, set off by the paintings before her. This condition is known as the Stendhal Syndrome, and the killer uses this to turn the tables on her. The rest of the film follows Anna as she recovers from the incident, as well as the cat and mouse game played with the killer, a really sick bastard, even for Italy.
A lot of this is typical Argento: a bit more of a detective film than Horror, the surprise revelation of the killer, the mediocre dubbing, the stylish murders (mostly a pistol is used for the killings--quite graphically in one instance--but I chose "Car Trunk" as the Weapon of Choice because that's what's used to dispatch the last victim, and it was much more unique), the exotic locale, the brutal violence (in one scene, Asia jams a paperclip under one of her fingernails . . . ouch!), the familiar score by Ennio Morricone (isn't this guy, like, a thousand years old by now?). It featured a great performance from Asia, who's quite pretty in a wounded, unusual sort of way. But it's too bad the public at large was introduced to her through a Vin Diesel movie, 2002's XXX. I really liked her in this film, and her sad, haunted character made a fan out of me. Signore Argento gets to play around with perception as Asia enters the paintings she sees in an unusual, physical way. There's a nice twist at the end, but it's not a feel-good film by any means. It was unpleasant, flawed, and damned harsh. It featured a quite sick rape and murder scene. And sweet little Asia is mistreated--raped, cut, saddened, driven to the brink of madness, then the poor girl is raped . . . again! What is this, a Japanese cartoon?
You know, I really like Dario Argento. He's our most reviewed director. I have a feeling the man is sick in ways only adult Olsen Twins fans can understand, but he has a nice style and a unique way of telling a story that I appreciate for some reason.
The things he puts poor Asia through . . . that I don't get. I don't have any children ("at least, none that I know about," he tepidly boasted, fooling no one), but I could never imagine filming one of my children being raped, beaten, and tortured, no matter how estranged our relationship. But hey, that's just me. I like the Backstreet Boys, so who cares what I think?
I'd Recommend This To: Argento fans (both Senior and Junior), but few else.
Note: I saw the long version from a Japanese laserdisc, but it didn't seem all that long to me.