BERLINALE 2022 Berlinale Special
Review: Dark Glasses
by Marta Bałaga
- BERLINALE 2022: Dario Argento is back with a film that’s so bad it’s not even good
Emerald Fennell tried to play around with the concept of a “dead hooker” in Promising Young Woman [+see also:
trailer
film profile], but clearly, there was no point – in Dario Argento’s latest outing, Dark Glasses [+see also:
trailer
film profile], it takes exactly “one Mississippi” for another sex worker to be, indeed, very much dead all over again. It’s hard to expect the Italian director, now well in his 80s, to suddenly change his tastes. But a premiere at the Berlinale for something that belongs in a discount bin is a stretch, even considering it has been ten years since his previous film.
Anyway, hard times have fallen on the working girls of Rome in general, it seems – even without a particular nutter who keeps repainting his van and following them around. Diana (Ilenia Pastorelli) is fresh off a string of bad clients, but one unpleasant conversation about fisting later, she is on the run as well and gets into a horrible car crash as a result. A man dies, and his wife falls into a coma. Only their child Chin (Xinyu Zhang) survives and is swiftly shipped off to the nuns, because, Italy. As for Diana, she loses her sight, and Asia Argento, of all people, is helping her heal.
No need to worry, though – the perfectly pleasant Argento is not on villain duties this time, although it does take a minute to stop expecting her character to suddenly push Diana in front of a bus, just for kicks. They form a bond, but Diana also guiltily reaches out to the boy, and the two strike up an unlikely friendship, a bit à la Gloria. Frankly, it’s all so sappy that it’s almost a relief when a killer comes back after taking a long nap, or whatever it is killers do when they give their victims some space so that they can learn how to defend themselves. Which is, granted, only polite.
Diana makes the most of that extra time, as even newly blind, she still needs to keep on working. After an encounter with her regular john, one’s mind starts to wander, which really says it all about the pace of this film. How do you actually prepare for a client if you are still learning how to move around in your own home? Are others – hopefully not poor Chin – helping you out, especially if wax or sharp razors are involved, or some very complicated-looking lingerie? If so, is that extra help tax-deductible? Asking for a friend.
There were some mentions of a “class war” in the very generous Berlinale description of the film, but overall, it’s a simple story that feels like a much trashier version of Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn. There is a killer who seems to have personal beef with Diana, but that doesn’t explain why he was also bothering other girls, two people who are trying to make it out alive and a bunch of idiotic cops. Oh, and guide dogs that, according to the Gospel of Dario, are clearly trained by Patrick Swayze in Road House.
This in itself is not yet a problem, but the whole thing is old-fashioned in all the wrong ways, visually unimaginative and, well, just lazy. Then again, among the Berlinale’s gloomy arthouse fare, at least it gifts one with the sight of a blind girl in sunglasses, running around in the woods at night in a miniskirt only to be attacked by snakes – which is, arguably, utterly hilarious. Women-hating killer or not, she has probably had it with these motherfucking snakes in this motherfucking river.
Dark Glasses is an Italian-French co-production staged by Urania Pictures, and co-produced by Getaway Films and RAI Cinema. Its sales are handled by Wild Bunch International.
Photogallery 11/02/2022: Berlinale 2022 - Occhiali neri
39 pictures available. Swipe left or right to see them all.
© 2022 Fabrizio de Gennaro & Dario Caruso for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it, dario-caruso.fr, @studio.photo.dar, Dario Caruso
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