Asking For It: Dario Argento’s Stendhal Syndrome

Have you ever been so shattered by a work of art that it caused you to hallucinate? Apparently, this is a thing. The last time I went to a gallery, I was reminded why I don’t go to more contemporary art shows. A piece of tinfoil and a bunch of coat hangers. No, I did not get Stendhal syndrome.

But now that I know this is a thing, it has probably happened to me at least once. Maybe the first time I heard Pretty on the Inside. I’m sure I was paralyzed by every filthy inch of that turpentine-soaked abortion album. And when it was over, I was never the same. Man hater. Self mutilator. Smoker. The kind of girl you really want your mom to meet… As long as you hate your mom.

In Dario Argento‘s The Stendhal Syndrome, a police detective named Anna is afflicted with the psychosomatic disorder when she looks at a Rembrandt. She hallucinates that she is underwater, tonguing a pervy grouper fish. (If this sounds hot, it really isn’t. I mean, maybe if it was a slinky eel or a hunky hammerhead…) Later, the psycho killer she’s been hunting takes advantage of her condition and brutally rapes her.

What makes this movie even more interesting is that Anna is played by Asia Argento, Dario’s daughter. I couldn’t stop wondering what it would be like to direct your own daughter in multiple savage rape-beating scenes. Mr. Argento was either sublimely evolved or a total paternal sadist. Probably both. Whatever his cocktail, it makes for good TV.

The rapist is very sexy. Kind of like a slim Dolph Lundgren. I’m not into muscles but I am into ice cold blondes. So this is a total win for me. And the rape scenes are fantastical in that you question their legitimacy. The rapist’s lair is a graffiti-soaked dungeon that seems to exist in a dreamscape. I often wondered if he was merely a satanic Stendhal stud.

Women have rape fantasies. This is not a secret. Why else do incest-rape books by V.C. Andrews consistently sell millions of copies? I know I read them. And it sure wasn’t because of the “intricate” writing style or “unconventional” plot twists.

I’m always fascinated by rape scenes in movies. Not only because of how they are presented, but also because of the reactions they ellicit. Remember Kids? I’ve met so many guys who confessed they couldn’t watch it because of the rapes. Interesting. What exactly makes men so uncomfortable? Is it because they genuinely have empathy for the victim? Is it because they identify with the rapist, him being MALE? Or is it because they’re afraid they might get turned on…?

I wonder how many men have rape fantasies. Not of raping but of being raped. In the movie, Anna begins to assume the sociopathic characteristics of her rapist. There’s a scene where she forces herself on her boyfriend. The scene is awkward and stark. I think it even takes place in the fucking kitchen. Not a fantasy. But why? Why isn’t it more of a turn on?

Probably because we don’t like to see women as sexual predators. Men don’t like feeling objectified. It’s uncomfortable when the gaze is reversed. It’s amusing that instead of seeing it as an opportunity, they jump the gun and fail to understand.

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