The Stendhal Syndrome (1996)

The Dario Argento-directed Italian thriller The Stendhal Syndrome (1996) is based on a real disease Argento claims to have suffer from as a child, where a person enters a hallucinatory state upon seeing beautiful artwork. The film tracks young policewoman Anna Manni (Darios' daughter Asia Argento) as she pursues a cunning serial sex criminal and murderer named Alfredo Grossi (Thomas Kretschmann). Somewhere along the way, he finds out about her rare disorder and realizes he can use it against her. Alfredo leads her into an art museum where her titular mental disorder causes her to faint and grow dizzy at the sight of the paintings, rendering her completely helpless. Eventually, she'll kill him and think everything's fine, only to start getting phone calls that have her questioning her sanity. Is Alfredo back, or is the woman who can't look at a painting without hallucinating just making more stuff up in her head? If you can accept that Stendhal Syndrome is an actual disorder, then you can also come to terms with the fact that there’s little-to-no nudity in this movie as well. Thomas Kretschmann shows a hint of backside when he's got Anna chained to a dirty mattress and is lying on top of her. He's sweating buckets, but his abs are what's really bringing the heat. Mr. Man would love to take her place! Another scene with the hallucinator that'll have you imagining some sexy stuff is when we get to see young Marco Leonardi shirtless when a blonde babe strips him down. Those bodies are works of art! You can masturbate, just don't hallucinate seeing them in The Stendhal Syndrome!