(1996)Anna , a detective in Rome’s anti-rape unit receives a tip that a wanted rapist/murderer is lurking at an art museum. She goes to the museum to check it out and while there the paintings trigger a condition called Stendhal Syndrome in her. Stendhal Syndrome causes the sufferers to hallucinate while looking at works of art, actually being drawn into the painting. Anna faints after her episode and awakes disoriented. A kind man named Alfredo helps her back to her hotel room. But Alfredo has an ulterior motive, he's actually the rapist. He brutally rapes her but she manages to escape before being murdered, though she suspects he actually let her live for some reason. She becomes fearful that Alfredo is still out there toying with her and dons a disguise to allude his clutches. Anna must come to terms with her Stendhal Syndrome and bring her life back into order so she can catch the man who raped her.
According to Wikipedia: Stendhal syndrome is a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art.
Sounds to me like an acid trip without the acid. If Stendhal Syndrome is anything like Dario Argento portrays in this film then sign me up. Anna walks into paintings and interacts in the scene, how cool is that. I'm sure the reality of it isn't quite so glamorous but it sure does sound kinda cool. Much cooler than Tourettes syndrome anyway. Although the film is a mere 2 hours in length it seemed a heck of a lot longer. I guess I really shouldn't blame it so much as myself though, it was near the end of Horrorthon and after watching 95 films they all start to blur together into one big hot mess. Still, I saved some of my favorite directors for the end in hopes of stirring up those horror juices a little. This was more of a psychological shaking rather than a horrific stir.
First and foremost, Stendhal Syndrome is visually interesting to watch. The villain is a total sick rapist psychopath that keeps you yearning for the pipe in the ass. You won't be disappointed. Also, this is some of the best acting I've seen out of Asia Argento as she deals with the psychological and physical damage from being raped.
3 comments:
I liked this one too. I think it's one of Argento's better later movies. Rape is a tough sell in horror movies. When we watched Martyrs (which had overwhelming horrific suffering but thankfully no rape) we discussed why it's (arguably) ok to depict such graphic torture but it's not ok to address rape. The conclusion was that EVERYBODY knows someone who's been raped but NO ONE knows anyone who's been (______*what that poor thing went through*______) so you can distance yourself.
Did you see Argento's most recent witch movie? Somehow I forgot all about it. Next year...
Do you mean Mother of Tears? I watched that last years Horrorthon. Check it out though, this says Suspiria is in production.
What you say makes sense, JSP. FOR A CHANGE. Okay, kidding.
I did a non-'thon viewing of this one recently and yeah, it's disturbing on a deeper, realer level than a lot of what we watch. And like Cat said, it's Asia's performance that makes it happen.
I do recall being miffed at Argento in one moment, when they play the "the call is coming from inside the house!" card but it's actually coming from inside the same room. Which makes no sense, because if you were on the phone with someone hiding behind the couch, you would hear them talking.
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