There aren't many directors around these days for whom the prospect of a brand new work is one to be greeted with some excitement. Many times the thought of a new film by a major film-maker has to be tempered with the knowledge that their days of legend and glory are a long way behind them and their recent efforts have been, shall we say, disappointing. (One thinks of Brian De Palma: no matter what happens, we're never getting another Dressed To Kill or Blow Out.) Perhaps the most frustrating case has been that of the mighty Dario Argento: so many highlights (Terror At The Opera, Deep Red, Tenebrae) but the second half of his filmography has been patchy, with little of the expected delirious visual flair and overdirection. Sleepless was decent enough, and I still like Do You Like Hitchcock? as a light, throwaway diversion, but with the best will in the world Dracula and Mother Of Tears were not good at all.
Dark Glasses (Occhiali Neri) sees Argento move back not wholly to the giallo, but at least to the contemporary serial killer thriller territory he's most famous for (and possibly most comfortable with). In this instance it's an unseen killer murdering sex workers with thin steel wire. His latest target Diana (Ilenia Pastorelli) escapes but is blinded in the subsequent pursuit which also leaves a young Chinese boy orphaned; the two team up unaware that the killer is still after her...
Despite the lack of blimey! plot twists, the narrative is as wonky as you'd expect: for one thing the plot hinges on the idea that there's only one white van in the whole of Rome, and for another it begins with a solar eclipse that's actually got nothing to do with the main action and is only there as a nod to Antonioni's L'Eclisse (it's not even there as a nod to Inferno!). The murder plot is also pretty much put on hold for a reel or two while we focus on the relationship between Diana and the young boy. And aside from the first killing and the maniac's gory demise (a bloodier version of a death scene from Suspiria), the violence is mostly far less graphic than usual. We don't even see the first two murders: we're merely informed by the police that this one is the third, and while there's no mystery as to the killer's identity, which is revealed in the most matter-of-fact way imaginable, there's absolutely no clue as to why he's doing it.
The thing about Argento is that the heights are so high they're practically impossible to match, but the same goes for the lows. Dark Glasses doesn't come anywhere close to Argento's wildest and greatest works, inevitably, but it never sinks to the bottom either. It won't win over any converts but it won't anger the diehard Tenebrites either. It looks absolutely wonderful, magnificently photographed by Mattheo Cocco, though one misses the sounds of Goblin on the soundtrack (the score by Arnaud Rebotini, whose work I'm not familiar with, might grow on me with subsequent listens). In the end Dark Glasses is a solid three-star movie, neither masterpiece nor disaster, and not even close to either, but comfortably in the middle. I liked it enough and wouldn't balk at the idea of having the film on my BluRay shelf.
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