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The Stendhal Syndrome In 1817 the young French novelist Marie-Henri Beyle, better known by his pen name "Stendhal", was overcome by Florence's rich tapestry of art and history on a visit to the city. He wrote in his diary, "I was in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in Florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty ... I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations ... Everything spoke so vividly to my soul. Ah, if I could only forget. I had palpitations of the heart, what in Berlin they call 'nerves.' Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling."
In the 1970s, Doctor Graziella Magherini, chief psychiatrist at Florence's Santa Maria Nuova Hospital remembered Stendhal's affliction when she noticed that many tourists to the city were similarly overwhelmed and suffered panic attacks and bouts of madness. She named the condition "Stendhal's Syndrome."
The Stendhal Syndrome is also the name of a movie by celebrated Italian horror director Dario Argento, starring his daughter, the gangly, voluptuous Asia Argento. Asia plays a young detective, Anna Manni, on the trail of a serial rapist who has recently started killing his victims. The trouble is, Anna suffers from Stendhal's Syndrome, and when she gets a tip off that the rapist may be in one of Florence's museums she suffers a disorientating hallucinatory experience and collapses.
One has to wonder why such a loon is employed by Rome's police and how she is allowed to carry a gun. But never mind. Dario Argento doesn't bother with such questions and ploughs on regardless.
Argento senior is concerned primarily with Anna's disintegrating mind as the rapist plays a sinister game of cat and mouse with her. There are some intriguing images, such as when the rapist shoots through the cheek of one his victims in ultra slow motion, which remind us of Argento's stunning movies from the 70s such as Suspiria and his once masterful handling of nightmarish visions.
The film, which dates from 1996, also suffers from some dodgy special effects, which may have been cutting edge at the time, but now look laughably odd, such as when Anna swallows a couple of tablets and the camera watches them fall down her CGI throat.
More disturbing is the realisation that the graphic scenes of sexual violence and nudity were directed by the main actress' father, which strikes me as a little odd, but perhaps that's just me.
Overall, The Stendhal Syndrome is one of Argento's better efforts during the lull in his career which persists to today. The acting is universally bad, with hammy dialogue and an atrocious script which telegraphs the ending if you're even remotely alert. But Dario Argento fans may find a place in their heart for it, as will the growing legion of Asia Argento fans, who probably outnumber the old man's fans by now.
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