Product: La Sindrome di Stendhal
Rating: 2.0
Film-three stars, DVD presentation-one, Total = two stars
Detective Anni Manni suffers from two things, she can't look at some works of art without fainting into an unconscious fantasy, and there is a homicidal, rapist-killer toying with her. After being brutalized by the madman and having her emotions and memory jumbled, she returns home to try and piece her fragile self back together. Stendhal Syndrome is haphazard mess, struggling to work, yet ultimately failing. Dario Argento presents a bleak film, negative because it lacks the Argento flourish, the stylized touch that made him famous. Aside from the occasional shot here and there, the film is outright flat, brutal, and clumsy. Truly, it is only the outright brutality that makes it interesting. Without that ugly touch to prod at and thicken the skin of the viewer, it is just a dud.What this film reminded me of, in terms of a director slightly shifting in style, was Hitchcock's Frenzy. With Frenzy, Hitchcock directed more violent scenes, nudity, and stronger elements in general, and it is the same with Dario and the overt cruelties in present in Stendhal Syndrome. Gone are the expressionistic tones and otherworldliness that made his violence slick and dreamlike. Instead, Stendhal is just a mean debacle, bookended by a flawed beginning and end, but a good, entertaining middle.The DVD itself is unforgivable. Troma delayed this for quite sometime, witch would lead one to believe they were taking great care with the film. It is perfectly obvious that they probably delayed the DVD only because of all the self-gratifying promos tacked onto it. The transfer is hideous, barely better than video, washed out color, grainy, and horrible contrast. The extra interviews (two with Dario, one with Sergio Stivaletti, and one, for some reason, with Ruggero Deodato?) are done on bad video with bad microphones, and cameramen, who neither know how to sit still, frame, or focus very well. There is a third interview with Dario that is quite good, fine sound and thank god, a cameraman who uses a tripod. If Troma is going to acquire more serious titles by genre filmmakers, they should treat the material with some respect and not do such an inexcusable hack job.