RIP Giuseppe Rotunno (1923 – 2021)

The Stendhal Syndrome 

Giuseppe Rotunno was an Italian cinematographer with a long career, working with many great directors, check your regular sources.

One of these films is The Stendhal Syndrome , the last feature film he worked on.

There is a full version of The Stendhal Syndrome on YouTube, a film I had not seen before which turned out to be very enjoyable.

I especially liked the opening scene at the Uffizi in Florence with The Birth of Venus by Botticelli, Caravaggio’s MedusaLandscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Paolo Uccello’s The Battle of San Romano and The Duke and Duchess of Urbino by Piero della Francesca.

When Asia is walking towards the Uffizi, you can already see the distinctive style of Rotunno’s cinematography, already invoking the fainting of Asia once she stands before the Bruegel painting.

After that, when she falls into the Icarus painting, she kisses a grouper fish. Beautiful!

The film is full of these little details, in her hotel room hangs a copy of The Night Watch by Rembrandt. She walks into this and finds herself on the streets, blurring the lines between fact and fiction.