Dark glasses

"Dark Glasses is a film I imagined a few years ago and couldn't make, but never stopped thinking about. The difficulty was linked to the demands of the market, which was looking for violent and meaningless stories, while I was finally going through a phase of reconciliation with my nightmares. So I decided to open the door of terror, to cross it and to go beyond it. Dark Glasses represents for me the culmination of an author's journey that is part of my destiny, a journey that, since childhood, has been influenced by the literature of Edgar Allan Poe. Now that times have changed, I do not want to betray the essence of the story, nor the style that interprets it." - Dario Argento

Dario Argento has established himself as a master of horror with films like Profondo Rosso (1975), Suspiria (1977), Inferno (1980), Tenebre (1982), Phenomena (1985) and La terza madre (2007). However, it must be admitted that his last films to date had nothing to show for it and were rather disappointing. His new film Dark glasses is similar to a thriller with nothing really original and from which we come out disappointed as this director gave life to outstanding films in the 70s and 80s before lining up films that had neither the visual qualities nor the precursors of these previous films but above all were not based on scenarios sufficiently developed to hold our attention. 

Dark Gasses, which will be released directly in the United States on October 13th, is a disappointment as it seems to want to find the visual strength of the first films without really developing the psychology of the characters or proposing striking violent scenes which could have brought to this film an undeniable added value. 

Diana is an Italian prostitute who, after having escaped from a serial killer, becomes blind after a tragic accident that caused the death of an Asian couple and left their child oprhelin. The child will be taken in by Diana until a relative of the child can come and raise him. As the serial killer seems to be back, Diana and this young child will confront this psychopath. The story itself is not original and the result is more like a TV movie than a true cinematographic work. 

The best films of Dario Argento had the merit to dynamize the giallos and to propose violent and memorable atmospheres. This film shows that this brilliant director seems to play the easy way despite the presence of a staging that finds those camera movements that have made the fame of this director. In the same way, the short duration of this film seems to show the numerous scenaristic failures and the lack of amplitude of this story that is quickly shot and that certainly benefits from the presence of the daughter of the director Asia Argento and the actress Ilenia Pastorelli in the main role, but this is not enough to hold our attention.

Dark Glasses (Occhiali neri)
Directed by Dario Argento
Written by Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini, Carlo Lucarelli
Produced by Conchita Airoldi, Laurentina Guidotti, Brahim Chioua, Noémie Devide, Vincent Maraval
Starring Ilenia Pastorelli, Asia Argento
Cinematography : Matteo Cocco
Edited by Flora Volpelière
Music by Arnaud Rebotini
Production companies : Urania Pictures, Getaway Films, Rai Cinema
Distributed by Vision Distribution
Release dates : 11 February 2022 (Berlinale), 24 February 2022 (Italy), October 13, 2022 (United states)
Running time : 90 minutes

Seen 06 October 2022 (Shudder press screener)

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