‘Black Glasses’ Review
Stars: Ilenia Pastorelli, Asia Argento, Andrea Gherpelli, Mario Pirrello, Maria Rosaria Russo, Gennaro Iaccarino, Xinyu Zhang | Written by Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini | Directed by Dario Argento
The Italian maestro is back! Yes, Dario Argento, one of Italian cinema’s great horror filmmakers has stepped back behind the camera for Occhiali Neri (Black Glasses), the director’s first movie since 2012’s much-ridiculed Dracula 3D, which is actually based on a script he wrote with Franco Ferrini that was shelved in 2002 when the films original production company, Cecchi Gori, filed for bankruptcy.
Black Glasses sees Rome under siege from a serial killer who has strangled three prostitutes with cello rope. His latest victim is destined to be Diana, a luxury escort who frequents the hotels of Via Veneto. One night, the maniac chases her in his white van and rams her, sending her crashing into another car containing a Chinese family and the young son Chin. She awakens in the hospital, shrouded in darkness. Severely injured from the accident, Diana has lost her sight. Rita, a young woman from the Blind Society, helps Diana with her first steps in the darkness and in her new life; in the meantime, the police investigate, unsuccessfully. But it won’t stop there. The Cellist must finish his work. Diana, helped by the now-orphaned Chin, can only try to escape. The cat and mouse game has just begun…
Of course, you can’t think Dario Argento without thinking Giallo. The man is known for his giallo movies, films like The Bird With The Crystal Plumage and Deep Red, which are credited for the explosion of the genre in Italy in the 70s and 80s, but which also owe a lot to the work of Mario Bava and Alfred Hitchcock. Unfortunately for Argento, he’s never been able to escape the “giallo director” filmmaker tag he was given and despite TRYING to change up his style and deliver new horror experiences, everything he does is compared to his early work – never quite living up to the high standards and regard many hold his early films in.
So now we have Black Glasses. A film that was penned before the likes of The Card Player, Mother of Tears, Giallo and the aforementioned Dracula 3D. Will resurrecting a script from that era also resurrect Argento’s career? In a word. Yes.
Though to be fair to Argento, there has been something of a re-appreciation of his late 90s/early 2000s films like The Stendahl Syndrome, Sleepless and The Card Player, with people realising that comparing his later work to his 70s and early 80s movies does his modern films a disservice and they can, ultimately, be appreciated for what they are. Which is how you should also approach Black Glasses.
Of course, there are elements of giallo in Black Glasses, as there are in most of Argento’s work, but here they feel like a love letter to the films and the genre Argento is known for, as if he’s running through a “greatest hits” of his work and the genres tropes and cliches if you will… but in no way as derivative as that sounds on paper! It’s also not a complete retread of everything that has come before it either; it’s not Argento doing Argento and rehashing his own style, in fact, there are things in this movie that AREN’T very “Argento” – there’s no big twist reveal of the killer for one!
What Black Glasses does do is focus on Diana, how she copes with her newfound blindness, and her relationship with Chin which, as others have said, feels very much akin to the dynamic between Cookie and Lori in Cat O’Nine Tails (told you this was a love letter to Argento’s own work). It’s also packed with the kinds of kills you’d expect to see in Italian horror – brutal, gory and brilliantly rendered. The film is also driven by a superb soundtrack by Arnaud Rebotini that mixes haunting melodies with a pounding synth score.
Honestly, Black Glasses is, for me, a return to form for Dario Argento. It’s certainly my favourite feature of his since 1990s Two Evil Eyes (though his amazing work on the Masters of Horror TV show can’t be ignored). If you like Argento, if you like Italian genre cinema, there’s a LOT to like about Black Glasses.
