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Nine Queens
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Wikipedia article
'Nine Queens' is a 2000 Argentinian crime drama film written and directed by Fabin Bielinsky and starring Ricardo Darn, Gastn Pauls, Leticia Brdice, Toms Fonzi and Alejandro Awada..
The story centers on two con artists who meet and decide to cooperate in a major scam. The film was nominated for 28 awards and won 21 of them, and is now considered a classic in Argentinian film history.
Plot
At a convenience store early in the morning, Juan (Gastn Pauls), a con artist, successfully scams one cashier, but he is caught when he attempts the same scam on a different cashier the next shift. Marcos (Ricardo Darn), who has been observing Juan, pretends to be a police officer and takes Juan away. Once they are far enough, Marcos reveals he is a fellow con man whose partner has recently disappeared. and asks Juan to be his partner for the day, an arrangement to which Juan agrees because his father, who is also a con man, is in jail and he needs to raise $70,000 quickly in order to bribe a judge.
Later that day, the chance to take part in an elaborate and potentially lucrative scheme arises when Sandler (Oscar Nuez), a former business associate of Marcos, contacts him to ask for help selling a counterfeit sheet of rare stamps named "The Nine Queens". The potential mark is Gandolfo (Ignasi Abadal), a rich, corrupt, stamp-collecting Spaniard who is staying at the hotel where Marcos' sister Valeria (Leticia Brdice) happens to work while he waits to be deported the next day. Since there is insufficient time to properly check if the stamps are authentic, Gandolfo hires an expert (Leo Dyzen) to do a quick check and is satisfied by the confirmation he receives. He offers $450,000 for the stamps, with the exchange to take place that evening. Outside of the hotel, the stamp expert says he knew the stamps were forged and demands Juan and Marcos pay him to say they were genuine. The fake stamps are then stolen out of Juan and Marcos' hands by thieves on a motorcycle who, unaware of their value, toss them into a river.
To salvage the scheme, Marcos and Juan approach Sandler's widowed sister Berta (Elsa Berenguer), as she is the owner of the real stamps, which she agrees to sell for $250,000. Marcos says he can put up $200,000 and asks Juan to contribute the remaining $50,000, but he becomes suspicious since it is the exact amount of money he saved so far, but after visiting his father in jail he ultimately agrees to the arrangement.
Marcos and Juan buy the real stamps and go back to the hotel, where, after finding out Valeria is Marcos' sister, Gandolfo says he has changed his mind and will now only buy the stamps if he also gets to sleep with Valeria. She says her price for doing so is Marcos confessing to their younger brother Federico (Toms Fonzi) that Marcos cheated both Valeria and him out of their family inheritance. After he does so, Valeria spends the night with Gandolfo, who pays for the stamps with a certified check the next morning. Juan and Marcos rush to the bank, only to see a crowd outside and learn the bank has crashed due to fraud by the management, making the check worthless. Juan, looking disillusioned, walks away, while Marcos sticks around to see if he can find a way to still get the money.
In the final scene, Juan arrives at a warehouse, where he greets the motorcycle thieves, Gandolfo, Sandler, Berta, and Valeria, who is Juan's girlfriend revealing that the real con was to swindle Marcos out of $200,000 as revenge for all the times he cheated his family and his partners.
Cast
* Gastn Pauls as Juan
* Ricardo Darn as Marcos
* Leticia Brdice as Valeria
* Ignasi Abadal as 'Vidal Gandolfo'
**Claudio Rissi as the real voice of 'Vidal Gandolfo'
* Toms Fonzi as Federico
* Elsa Berenguer as Berta
* Oscar Nez as Sandler
* Celia Jurez as Mrs. Sandler
* Antonio Ugo as D'Agostino
* Jorge Noya as Anibal
* Alejandro Awada as Washington
* Roberto Rey as Texan
* Leo Dyzen as stamp expert
* Ricardo Daz Mourelle as Ramiro
Background
The main character of the film is trying to remember the tune of a Rita Pavone song throughout the film. The song, "Il Ballo del Mattone", plays as the end credits run.
Distribution
The film opened wide in Argentina on August 31, 2000. The film was screened at various film festivals, including: the Telluride Film Festival, United States; the Toronto International Film Festival, Canada; the Medelln de Pelcula, Colombia; the Portland International Film Festival, United States; the Cognac Festival du Film Policier, France; the Mnchen Fantasy Filmfest, Germany; the Norwegian International Film Festival, Norway; and others.In the United States it opened on a limited basis on April 19, 2002.
Remakes
The film's screenplay was adapted for the 2004 American film 'Criminal'. It was also used as a basis for three Indian films: the Bollywood film 'Bluffmaster!' (2005), the Malayalam film 'Gulumal' (2009) and the Telugu film 'All the Best' (2012).Critical reception
'Nine Queens' garnered mostly positive reviews from film critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 92% approval rating based on 95 reviews, with an average rating of 7.45/10. The site's consensus reads: "Deliciously twist-filled, 'Nine Queens' is a clever and satisfying crime caper." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80/100 based on 30 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Roger Ebert, in his review of 'Nine Queens' for the 'Chicago Sun-Times', gave the film a score of three out of four stars, commending its screenplay and calling the film "an elegant and sly deadpan comedy." Michael Wilmington of the 'Chicago Tribune' awarded the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, and called it "One of the most clever, most enjoyable thrillers in years." 'Orlando Sentinel' film critic Roger Moore gave the film four stars out of five, writing, "the laughs are dark, the puzzle steadily more engrossing and the surprises, just like 'Heist', are doozies, up to the finale." Edward Guthmann of the 'San Francisco Chronicle' also gave the film a positive review, writing: "Fast-paced and unerringly surprising, 'Nine Queens' is nicely performed by a large cast [...] David Mamet plowed this con-the-con turf in 'Heist', 'House of Games' and 'The Spanish Prisoner', but Bielinsky, in his directing debut, makes it seem sassy and reinvented."
Geoff Pevere of 'The Toronto Star' wrote in his review of the film: "If 'Nine Queens' draws you on a journey that eventually leads up a garden path toward your own suckerhood, it's all the more pleasurable for having done so with such slick expertise." BBC film critic Tom Dawson called the film "a welcome addition to the genre" and a "taut thriller a powerful allegorical resonance."
Awards
'Wins'
* Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor; Best Actor, Ricardo Darn; Best Cinematography, Marcelo Camorino; Best Director, Fabin Bielinsky; Best Editing, Sergio Zottola; Best Film; Best Original Screenplay, Fabin Bielinsky; Best Supporting Actress, Elsa Berenguer; 2001.
* Biarritz International Festival of Latin American Cinema: Best Actor, (tie) Ricardo Darn and Gastn Pauls; for 'Nueve reinas'; 2001.
* Bogot Film Festival: Audience Award, Fabin Bielinsky; Golden Precolumbian Circle, Best Director, Fabin Bielinsky; 2001.
* Lima Latin American Film Festival: Elcine First Prize, Fabin Bielinsky; 2001.
* Lleida Latin-American Film Festival: Audience Award, Fabin Bielinsky; Best Director, Fabin Bielinsky; 2001.
* Oslo Films from the South Festival: Audience Award, Fabin Bielinsky; 2001.
* Cognac Festival du Film Policier: 'Grand Prix', Fabin Bielinsky; Premiere Award, Fabin Bielinsky; 2002.
* Fantasporto: Directors' Week Award, Best Screenplay, Fabin Bielinsky; 2002.
* Portland International Film Festival: Audience Award Best First Film, Fabin Bielinsky; 2002.
* Sant Jordi Awards: Best Foreign Actor, Ricardo Darn. Also for 'La Fuga' (2001) and 'El Hijo de la Novia' (2001); 2002.
References
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