Product: La Sindrome di Stendhal
Rating: 4.0
an unappreciated psycho-thriller
I have read so many reviews {mostly on other websites} saying that Dario Argento's films in the 90s are all disappointing compared to his past masterpieces. I totally disagree. I think Argento has yet to lose his touch.It's just after so many great horror/thriller/mystery movies, you tend to keep comparing all his movies to his earlier masterpieces. Even though The Stendahl Syndrome is not as great as Suspiria, Deep Red, Phenomena, etc., it's still alot better then the majority of thrillers out nowadays.I will not get into the plot and story line because there are plenty of other reviews to go to for that. I just want to go into why I love this film. First off the story and plot {that I just chose to ignore in this review} is pretty original but still has common elements of other Argento films. Second, the scenes where Asia "falls" or "walks" into art are great and I wish there was more scenes like that. The rape and torture scenes are kinda hard to watch but they are not over the top {atleast not by Argento standards} and halfway through Asia gets to turn the tables for a bit. The movie switches between 2 or 3 different overall feels. At first, it's got paranoia and horror with Asia having constant encounters with the villian but then it changes to a more calm and healing feel and then switches back to fear before the last scenes fall into place.The only things that really bothered me was Asia has a cop, she didn't quite bring in the feel that she was one. And this film has alot of similar elements to Argento's earlier film Tenebre. Either way I highly suggest this film to fans of psychologic thrillers but this is not a good film to experience Dario Argento for the first time if you have yet to witness any of his great early work.