The Stendhal Syndrome
Encyclopedia
The Stendhal Syndrome is 1996 Italian Horror film
, written and directed by Dario Argento
and starring his daughter Asia Argento
. It was the first Italian film to use computer-generated imagery
(CGI).. Stendhal Syndrome
is a real syndrome, first diagnosed in Florence, Italy in 1982. It is named after the French writer Marie-Henri Beyle, who wrote under the nom de plume Stendhal
and reportedly experienced like symptoms in 1817. The director, Dario Argento
, said he experienced Stendhal syndrome as a child. While touring Athens with his parents young Dario was climbing the steps of the Parthenon when he was overcome by a trance that caused him to become lost from his parents for hours. The experience was so strong that Argento never forgot it and immediately thought of it when he came across Magherini's book, which would become the basis of the film. The film was a large Box Office hit when released in Italy grossing 5,443,000,000 Italian Lira ($3,809,977) Argento's highest grossing film in his native country.
) travels to Florence
on the trail of a serial killer
(Thomas Kretschmann
). While at a museum, Anna is struck by the Stendhal Syndrome
, which causes people to become overwhelmed by great works of art. The killer uses this disorder against Anna, kidnapping
and raping
her. She escapes, but is deeply traumatized
. She eventually finds redemption and a whole new perspective to life.
tried at first to get Bridget Fonda
and then Jennifer Jason Leigh
to play the role of Anna. He eventually cast his own daughter, Asia Argento, in the role. Thomas Kretschmann
was cast as Alfredo Grossi because Dario Argento
had seen him working with star Asia Argento
on the set of Queen Margot
(1994). Argento was impressed enough by Kretschmann that he would later think of him for the role.
Ennio Morricone
's eerie music score for the film follows the same tune played either forward or backward.
The opening scene' was shot in Florence at Italy's famed Uffizi Gallery. Argento is the only director ever granted permission to shoot there.
The painting that Anna literally steps into is a Rembrandt painting of 17th Century policemen entitled Night Watch
. The painting that causes Anna to faint in the museum is by Bruegel, called Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
.
The footage of Anna underwater after fainting in the gallery was actually shot in the sea - not a swimming pool. The huge grouper fish that Anna kisses was a remote model that was being pulled through the waters by cables attached to a small float on the oceans surface. Mere moments after wrapping the underwater shoot, the fish stopped working.
This would be the last fiction feature film for acclaimed director of photography Giuseppe Rotunno
. The following year he shot a documentary on Marcello Mastroianni
before retiring.
Graffiti artists were brought in to cover the underground lair of Alfredo with graffiti. In one night the group created over a hundred square feet of graffiti-covered walls on the location.
This is the second of four films in which Argento has directed his daughter Asia: the three others are Trauma
, The Phantom of the Opera
, and The Mother of Tears. She also had roles in Demons 2 and The Church, which Dario Argento produced, along with her directorial debut Scarlet Diva
.
Argento planned on making a sequel to the film which would follow Detective Anna Manni on another case. However, Asia
was unavailable, so the character's name was changed (to Anna Mari) and Stefania Rocca
was cast. The resulting film is 2004's The Card Player
.
company Troma Entertainment
. A new special edition DVD of the film was released by Blue Underground
on August 30, 2007.
US DVD release by Troma release is the complete version of the English language edition, but, like all English releases, is still missing around 2 minutes of material exclusive to the Italian print.
The Italian release is around two minutes longer than the English export version, including an additional scene where Anna calls the husband of one of Alfredo's victims, and another where she meets Marie's mother, played by Veronica Lazar (whose name is included in the credits of all versions, even those in which she does not appear).
This film premiered on video in the UK, but 11 cuts totalling 2m 47s were made by the distributor before submission to the BBFC for a video certificate. These cuts are to rape scenes, violence and some dialogue. The 2005 UK DVD release, by Arrow Pictures, has had all previous cuts waived and represents the full-length English version, although like all English releases it omits the two scenes exclusive to the Italian version. Since the uncut version has never been submitted to the British Board of Film Classification, this version was withdrawn and re-released in a cut form. The new cut release has a colour graphic on the disc itself, whereas the uncut version had a black and white label.
Blue Underground released The Stendahl Syndrome on Blu-ray in 2009, and contains the entire film uncut, including the additional 'Italian only' scenes (still in Italian, with English subtitles).
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
, written and directed by Dario Argento
Dario Argento
Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....
and starring his daughter Asia Argento
Asia Argento
Aria Asia Anna Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento is an Italian actress, singer, model and director.-Family and early life:...
. It was the first Italian film to use computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
(CGI).. Stendhal Syndrome
Stendhal syndrome
Stendhal syndrome, Stendhal's syndrome, hyperkulturemia, or Florence syndrome is a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly beautiful or a large amount of art...
is a real syndrome, first diagnosed in Florence, Italy in 1982. It is named after the French writer Marie-Henri Beyle, who wrote under the nom de plume Stendhal
Stendhal
Marie-Henri Beyle , better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme...
and reportedly experienced like symptoms in 1817. The director, Dario Argento
Dario Argento
Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....
, said he experienced Stendhal syndrome as a child. While touring Athens with his parents young Dario was climbing the steps of the Parthenon when he was overcome by a trance that caused him to become lost from his parents for hours. The experience was so strong that Argento never forgot it and immediately thought of it when he came across Magherini's book, which would become the basis of the film. The film was a large Box Office hit when released in Italy grossing 5,443,000,000 Italian Lira ($3,809,977) Argento's highest grossing film in his native country.
Plot
Detective Anna Manni (Asia ArgentoAsia Argento
Aria Asia Anna Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento is an Italian actress, singer, model and director.-Family and early life:...
) travels to Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
on the trail of a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
(Thomas Kretschmann
Thomas Kretschmann
Thomas Kretschmann is a German actor best known for playing Leutnant Hans Von Witzland in the 1993 film Stalingrad, Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in The Pianist, Hermann Fegelein in Der Untergang, and Captain Englehorn in the 2005 remake of King Kong.-Early life:Kretschmann was born in Dessau, former...
). While at a museum, Anna is struck by the Stendhal Syndrome
Stendhal syndrome
Stendhal syndrome, Stendhal's syndrome, hyperkulturemia, or Florence syndrome is a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly beautiful or a large amount of art...
, which causes people to become overwhelmed by great works of art. The killer uses this disorder against Anna, kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
and raping
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
her. She escapes, but is deeply traumatized
Psychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
. She eventually finds redemption and a whole new perspective to life.
Cast
- Asia ArgentoAsia ArgentoAria Asia Anna Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento is an Italian actress, singer, model and director.-Family and early life:...
as Det. Anna Manni - Thomas KretschmannThomas KretschmannThomas Kretschmann is a German actor best known for playing Leutnant Hans Von Witzland in the 1993 film Stalingrad, Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in The Pianist, Hermann Fegelein in Der Untergang, and Captain Englehorn in the 2005 remake of King Kong.-Early life:Kretschmann was born in Dessau, former...
as Alfredo Grossi - Marco LeonardiMarco LeonardiMarco Leonardi is an Italian actor.Leonardi was born in Australia to Italian parents. He moved to Italy at the age of four and starred in the famous movie Cinema Paradiso and in the Mexican movie Like Water for Chocolate . He has made several movies in the United States, such as Once Upon a Time...
as Marco Longhi - Luigi DibertiLuigi DibertiLuigi Diberti is an Italian actor. He has appeared in over 100 films and television shows since 1968. He starred in Magnificat, which was entered into the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.-Selected filmography:* Metello...
as Insp. Manetti - Paolo BonacelliPaolo BonacelliPaolo Bonacelli is an Italian actor.He is best known for his performance as The Duke de Blangis in Pasolini's notorious Salò...
as Dr. Cavanna - Julien Lambroschini as Marie
- John Quentin as Anna's father
- Franco Diogene as Victim's husband
- Lucia Stara as Shop assistant
- Sonia Topazio as Victim in Florence
- Lorenzo Crespi as Giulio
- Vera Gemma as Policewoman
- John Pedeferri as Hydraulic engineer
- Veronica LazarVeronica LazarVeronica Lazar is an Italian actress.She made her debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris , and also appeared in some of the director's subsequent films, La Luna , The Sheltering Sky , and Besieged . Lazar is probably best known for her role as the demonic Mater Tenebrarum in Dario...
as Marie's mother - Mario Diano as Coroner
Production
Director Dario ArgentoDario Argento
Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....
tried at first to get Bridget Fonda
Bridget Fonda
Bridget Jane Fonda is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in films such as The Godfather Part III, Single White Female, Point of No Return, It Could Happen to You, and Jackie Brown...
and then Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
to play the role of Anna. He eventually cast his own daughter, Asia Argento, in the role. Thomas Kretschmann
Thomas Kretschmann
Thomas Kretschmann is a German actor best known for playing Leutnant Hans Von Witzland in the 1993 film Stalingrad, Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld in The Pianist, Hermann Fegelein in Der Untergang, and Captain Englehorn in the 2005 remake of King Kong.-Early life:Kretschmann was born in Dessau, former...
was cast as Alfredo Grossi because Dario Argento
Dario Argento
Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....
had seen him working with star Asia Argento
Asia Argento
Aria Asia Anna Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento is an Italian actress, singer, model and director.-Family and early life:...
on the set of Queen Margot
La Reine Margot (1994 film)
La Reine Margot is a 1994 French period film directed by Patrice Chéreau, based on the 1845 historical novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas, père. It stars Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, Virna Lisi and Vincent Pérez...
(1994). Argento was impressed enough by Kretschmann that he would later think of him for the role.
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
's eerie music score for the film follows the same tune played either forward or backward.
The opening scene' was shot in Florence at Italy's famed Uffizi Gallery. Argento is the only director ever granted permission to shoot there.
The painting that Anna literally steps into is a Rembrandt painting of 17th Century policemen entitled Night Watch
Night Watch (painting)
Night Watch or The Night Watch or The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq is the common name of one of the most famous works by Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn....
. The painting that causes Anna to faint in the museum is by Bruegel, called Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
Landscape With The Fall of Icarus
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus is a painting in oil on canvas long thought to be by Pieter Bruegel, although following technical examinations in 1996, that attribution is regarded as very doubtful, and it is now seen as a good early copy by an unknown artist of Bruegel's original, perhaps...
.
The footage of Anna underwater after fainting in the gallery was actually shot in the sea - not a swimming pool. The huge grouper fish that Anna kisses was a remote model that was being pulled through the waters by cables attached to a small float on the oceans surface. Mere moments after wrapping the underwater shoot, the fish stopped working.
This would be the last fiction feature film for acclaimed director of photography Giuseppe Rotunno
Giuseppe Rotunno
Giuseppe Rotunno, A.S.C., A.I.C. is an Italian cinematographer. Sometimes credited as Peppino Rotunno, he was director of photography on eight films by Federico Fellini...
. The following year he shot a documentary on Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni, Knight Grand Cross was an Italian film actor. His honours included British Film Academy Awards, Best Actor awards at the Cannes Film Festival and two Golden Globe Awards.- Personal life :...
before retiring.
Graffiti artists were brought in to cover the underground lair of Alfredo with graffiti. In one night the group created over a hundred square feet of graffiti-covered walls on the location.
This is the second of four films in which Argento has directed his daughter Asia: the three others are Trauma
Trauma (1993 film)
Trauma is a 1993 film directed by Dario Argento who also co-wrote the screenplay. The film can be described as a giallo, that is a film with influences from the horror, mystery, and thriller genres.-Plot synopsis:...
, The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera (1998 film)
The Phantom of the Opera is a 1998 Italian horror film directed by Dario Argento, adapted from the novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux. However, there are many differences between the book and the movie.- Plot :In Paris 1877, rats save an abandoned baby in a basket and raise him in the...
, and The Mother of Tears. She also had roles in Demons 2 and The Church, which Dario Argento produced, along with her directorial debut Scarlet Diva
Scarlet Diva
Scarlet Diva is a 2000 Italian movie by actress and first time director and writer Asia Argento.The film won a Williamsburg Brooklyn Film Festival Award for Best New Director, which actually tied with two other films.-Plot summary:...
.
Argento planned on making a sequel to the film which would follow Detective Anna Manni on another case. However, Asia
Asia Argento
Aria Asia Anna Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento is an Italian actress, singer, model and director.-Family and early life:...
was unavailable, so the character's name was changed (to Anna Mari) and Stefania Rocca
Stefania Rocca
Stefania Rocca is an Italian actress.Rocca is best known for her roles in the films Nirvana , The Talented Mr. Ripley and Dracula . She also was the lead in Dario Argento's The Card Player. Her most recent appearance was in the Italian movie, Commediasexi where she played the main character,...
was cast. The resulting film is 2004's The Card Player
The Card Player
The Card Player is a 2004 horror-thriller directed by Dario Argento. The film stars Stefania Rocca and Liam Cunningham and marks Argento's second giallo feature of the decade . In its Italian Theatrical release it took in 2.926.000 Euro The film features a brief role for Fiore Argento, the...
.
Alternate versions
In the U.S., the film is distributed by B-movieB-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
company Troma Entertainment
Troma Entertainment
Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974.The company produces low-budget independent movies that play on 1950s horror with elements of farce...
. A new special edition DVD of the film was released by Blue Underground
Blue Underground
Blue Underground is an American company specializing in releasing authoritative editions of cult and exploitation movies on Blu-ray Disc and DVD....
on August 30, 2007.
US DVD release by Troma release is the complete version of the English language edition, but, like all English releases, is still missing around 2 minutes of material exclusive to the Italian print.
The Italian release is around two minutes longer than the English export version, including an additional scene where Anna calls the husband of one of Alfredo's victims, and another where she meets Marie's mother, played by Veronica Lazar (whose name is included in the credits of all versions, even those in which she does not appear).
This film premiered on video in the UK, but 11 cuts totalling 2m 47s were made by the distributor before submission to the BBFC for a video certificate. These cuts are to rape scenes, violence and some dialogue. The 2005 UK DVD release, by Arrow Pictures, has had all previous cuts waived and represents the full-length English version, although like all English releases it omits the two scenes exclusive to the Italian version. Since the uncut version has never been submitted to the British Board of Film Classification, this version was withdrawn and re-released in a cut form. The new cut release has a colour graphic on the disc itself, whereas the uncut version had a black and white label.
Blue Underground released The Stendahl Syndrome on Blu-ray in 2009, and contains the entire film uncut, including the additional 'Italian only' scenes (still in Italian, with English subtitles).