Lunettes noires

I have seen Occhiali neri last night at FEST - International Film Festival, Belgrade . It's a very strange Iittle thriller, very bizarre and very low budget. The plot is extremely silly, with water snakes and other over-the-top decisions, but that's Argento for you. We don't expect logic in his films. Do we? There is warmth in it as well, it's very character driven. It feels rushed in places and acting is so-so, but overall you should definitely see if you're Argento fan. It's his best since Nonhosonno, fast paced and never boring. And yes... it's very gory. The third act reminded me of the begining of Rob Zombie's Halloween 2, because it's basically a long chase scene in the countryside. The OST is great.

The past 15 years have been really hard on Dario Argento fans. Dracula 3-D & Giallo were the lowest of the low and Dark Glasses is a faint improvement. The biggest issue with recent Argento films seem to be the low budgets. It's not as if his early work was mega budgets but the past few movies he seems to be working from the biscuit tin. The style and flair that went with his earlier work is just not there any more. This movie has a nice soundtrack and is Argento all over however that appears to be the only thing remaining.

Ilenia Pastorelli is the lead role and it's not unfair to say she isn't the best actress in the world. Asia Argento is in this and is given nothing to do and makes you wonder if she would have been the lead if this movie was made in 2002 when Dario Argento wanted to film it.

The movie climaxes with a typical ridiculous killer reveal and goes full on Cujo remake. Anyone watching this would perceive this as someone doing a bad Argento movie and not the great man himself. People would be best off watching Deep Red again.

I guess you could call Dark Glasses a return to form for Dario Argento in the sense that it's better than Dracula 3D. It more or less feels like an actual film, and while it's a bit too simple and not particularly exciting, outside a couple of brief moments here and there, it's arguably competent enough to be sort of watchable. It's certainly not a return to form in the sense that it rivals the filmmaker's best stuff, even if the premise here is something that's easy to imagine Argento tackling in the 1970s or 80s.

I've been on a bit of a binge of the filmmaker's work for research/writing purposes, but I think I might bow out gracefully here. I've seen about 80% of his features, I think? It feels like enough for me, because while the only genuinely bad one I've seen has been Dracula 3D, the majority of his 1990s to 21st-century stuff has done very little for me. But it's been somewhat worthwhile to watch most of his stuff, and I think doing so will make me appreciate his earlier movies even more, should I revisit any of them one day.

I found the film a little bit lacking. This is a slasher film and not Citizen Kane! Dario has done some great innovative stuff over the years and while this not being one of them I found it entertaining.

Music - awesome. Photography - decent.

Everything else - lame.

Still better then Argento's Dracula, though.

All in all - for diehard Argento fans only.