THE STENDHAL SYNDROME REVIEWED
“The Stendhal Syndrome” arrived at a point in the 1990s when Dario Argento became fascinated with his daughter. Sure, the love affair with Asia started earlier that decade. It’s just that one has to wonder the mechanics of Why? Many Internet commentators have made crude jokes at the source of the fascination. Honestly, I believe it goes deeper. This film presents Asia in the role of a young policewoman who gets stalked and attacked by a brutal rapist/murderer. That sounds fairly average for a Giallo.
But, you have to understand Dario Argento’s approach. In his later years, Hitchcock declined as he lost his sense of closeness to the material. Dario Argento’s last great gasp in the 1990s came because he wanted to force himself into the story. What thrill is left for a director, but to raise the stakes in a personal way? Lucky for Dario, his kid was willing to play ball in a psychosexual simulation of attempted rape and other bits of debauchery. Thankfully, DePalma didn’t have adult children to torture in the early 80s.
So, what’s the grand takeaway? Most of the 1990s was an obviously bored Argento making films to keep him in the game. Sometime around 2002, the horror master officially checked out. Stepping away a moment, I wanted to address an issue about the transfer on this Blu. It’s been known for a week or so that some discs had compression/resolution issues. While my review disc appeared to be clean, I did notice an insane amount of grain at certain spots. It’s a point of concern, so I took a screenshot of the issue below.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Commentary
- Interviews
- Trailers
- Featurettes
- Booklets
A/V STATS
- 1.85:1 1080p transfer
- DTS-HD 7.1 master audio track
RELEASE DATE: 7/25/17
