“Dark Glasses” (2022) had me looking with rose-colored (or “Deep Red”-colored) glasses back at Dario Argento’s career. The writer-director was likely doing that himself as he made his first movie in 10 years and his first giallo in a lot longer than that.
A redo of ‘Cat o’ Nine Tails’?
Although I’d bet Argento was aiming to please longtime fans, he can’t help but be influenced by the film world around him, and I find “Dark Glasses” to be a tighter answer to his second film, “Cat o’ Nine Tails” (1971). Lacking the wackadoo asides of his Seventies films, “Dark Glasses” never strays far from its core plotline.
A highlight of the all-over-the-place “Cat o’ Nine Tails” is the cute relationship between a blind uncle and his niece who helps him. In “Dark Glasses” – only available in Italian with English subtitles, rather than in a dub — we have a blind prostitute, Diane (Ilenia Pastorelli), who befriends orphan boy Chin (Andrea Zhang).
“Dark Glasses” (2022)
Director: Dario Argento
Writers: Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini
Stars: Ilenia Pastorelli, Asia Argento, Andrea Gherpelli
Co-written by longtime collaborator Franco Ferrini, the film doesn’t ascend to the upper reaches of Argento’s catalog, but settles in a cozy middle ground – if stories of stranglers and animal attacks are cozy (I say they can be, when you’re in giallo’s embrace).
It’s not too concerned with making a statement, although there might be something here about observing the world around you. In the opening segment, Diana drives around, confused as to why everyone is staring up at the sky through protective screens. It’s an eclipse, and she puts on only sunglasses to look at it. (Stronger protection is recommended.)
She doesn’t go blind from this, nor is all the action set during an eclipse. It’s just a metaphor, I guess. Diana later loses her eyesight due to brain damage in a car crash.
Moments of light in a dark world
The killer who is going around targeting prostitutes is middle-of-the-pack among Argento villains. And the killer’s specific motivation ends up being humorously mundane.
What sets “Dark Glasses” apart from a lot of the auteur’s previous work is that budding friendships – between Diana, Chin and Diana’s seeing-eye dog — take center stage, not ceding the spotlight for long to style. Although there are moments of horror bombast, even these moments allow us to sympathize with the characters. Most harrowing is when Diana and Chin wander into a nest of water snakes; that’s something new.
A killer whipping out a wire to strangle a prostitute is not so new. These scenes do have some nostalgia, but since this is 2022 rather than the 1970s, it’s mostly old hat. Watching investigators go through the motions, I felt like I was going through the motions as a viewer.
But only for a while. Pastorelli – in a role that would’ve been played by Asia Argento 10 to 20 years prior — ends up doing an amazing job portraying the struggles of a newly blind woman to move through unfamiliar environments. An almost unrecognizable (because I had been watching her older films) Asia Argento has a nice supporting role as another friend, Diana’s helper in adjusting to an independent life as a blind person.
So while some moments of slasher horror and gore are worthwhile, an overall giallo mood doesn’t quite emerge. But “Dark Glasses” counters that by boasting a rare batch of characters I really liked. Rather than a pathetic late-career grasp at greatness, Argento shows he still knows what he’s doing, and has even acquired a previously less-honed skill.