February 12, 2022
Arnaud Rebotini Scores Argento’s New Film DARK GLASSES
– Randall D. Larson
Italian giallo maestro Dario Argento has returned to the director’s chair for the first time in more than a decade. His new film, DARK GLASSES (Occhiali Neri; also known as BLACK GLASSES), returns the director to his roots, being described as a classic thriller, or giallo, as the violent crime genre is known in Italy. Argento, now 81, is acclaimed for such classic Italian giallos as THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, DEEP RED, SUSPIRIA, TENEBRE, PHENOMENA, INFERNO, and OPERA. His previous film as director was 2012’s DRACULA 3D, which was poorly received.
DARK GLASSES looks to return Argento to his classic filmmaking form. The movie is about a serial killer who strangles prostitutes with cello strings and is pursuing a luxury escort named Diana (Ilenia Pastorelli). But there is a twist: Diana is blinded by a car crash with the killer and gets help from an orphaned Chinese boy (Xinyu Zhang) and a social worker played by Dario’s daughter, Asia Argento.
Asia also serves as the film’s associate producer, reported Nick Vivarelli in Variety yesterday, adding that “She was also instrumental… , along with [fellow director Gaspar] Noe, in getting French techno composer Arnaud Rebotini [CURIOSA (2019), BPM (Beats Per Minute; 2017), BLAIR WITCH (2016; writer/performer of “Pagan Dance Move”), EASTERN BOYS (2013)] to score the film after Daft Punk allegedly dropped out because they broke up.”
The film was originally scripted back in 2002, written by Argento with Franco Ferrini and Carlo Lucarelli, but production ended before it began and the screenplay was put aside – only to be found by Asia recently who persuaded her father that he should make the film. Twenty years since its writing, DARK GLASSES is “a bit different from the original, but it has the same wild and crazy spirit,” Argento, who reworked the script and also shot the film during the pandemic, told Variety (read the full story here).
DARK GLASSES premiered yesterday at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Watch the trailer to DARK GLASSES:
