Nine Queens (film)

Infobox Film
name = Nine Queens


caption = Theatrical poster
director = Fabián Bielinsky
producer = Cecilia Bossi Pablo Bossi
writer = Fabián Bielinsky
starring = Gastón Pauls Ricardo Darín Leticia Brédice Tomás Fonzi
music = César Lerner
cinematography = Marcelo Camorino
editing = Sergio Zottola
distributor = Buena Vista International
released = August 31, 2000
runtime = 114 minutes
country = Argentina
language = Spanish
budget = $1,500,000 estimated.
amg_id = A255229
imdb_id = 0247586|

"Nine Queens" ( _es. Nueve reinas) (2000) is a Argentine crime drama film written and directed by Fabián Bielinsky. The picture features Gastón Pauls, Ricardo Darín, Leticia Brédice, Tomás Fonzi, among others. [imdb title|id=0247586|title=Nueve reinas.]

The film was nominated for twenty-eight awards and won twenty-one of them.

It tells the story of two con artists who meet by chance and decide to cooperate in a scam.

Plot

Two con men, Marcos and Juan meet, apparently by chance, in a gas station mini-market, early in the morning. Juan attempts to scam the cashier, but makes a mistake when he comes back to pull the same scam on the next shift, too.

Marcos, who has been observing this the whole time, steps in pretending to be a police officer, and takes Juan away. As soon as they are far enough from the shop, Marcos tells Juan he is not a cop but a fellow con man. Juan asks Marcos to show him the ropes, because, Juan tells us, his father was a con man, too, but he got locked up in jail for trying to swindle somebody. Juan tells Marcos that he needs the money, because there is a certain judge that accepts bribes and if the money is right, his dad can be released within 6 months, instead of serving 10 years.

Then a once-in-a-lifetime scheme seemingly falls into their laps: the sale of some rare forged stamps, called "The Nine Queens", to a rich Spaniard who is leaving the country the next morning and therefore is unable to check if the stamps are legitimate.

The plot thickens when Marcos' sister, Marcos' younger brother and various thieves, con men and pickpockets -- old friends of Juan's father -- get involved, and the forged stamps get stolen.

SPOILER ALERT: At the end, the film makes a dramatic plot change by showing that all the operation was a scam made by Juan, in order to get money Marcos swindled away from his sister, Juan's girlfriend.

Cast

* Gastón Pauls as Juan
* Ricardo Darín as Marcos
* Leticia Brédice as Valeria
* Tomás Fonzi as Federico
* Graciela Tenenbaum as Convenience Store Employee
* María Mercedes Villagra as Convenience Store Employee 2
* Gabriel Correa as Convenience Store Manager
* Pochi Ducasse as Aunt
* Luis Armesto as Bar Waiter
* Ernesto Arias as Bar Manager
* Amancay Espíndola as Woman in Elevator
* Isaac Fajm as Vendor
* Jorge Noya as Aníbal
* Oscar Nuñez as Sandler
* Ignasi Abadal as Vidal Gandolfo
* Carlos Lanari as Man on Cell Phone
* Alejandro Awada as Washington

Distribution

The film opened wide in Argentina on August 31, 2000. The film was screened at various film festivals, including: the Telluride Film Festival, USA; the Toronto Film Festival, Canada; the "Medellín de Película", Colombia; the Portland International Film Festival, United States; the Cognac Festival du Film Policier, France; the München 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.

Critical reception

Film critic Roger Ebert liked the screenplay of the film, and wrote, "And on and on, around and around, in an elegant and sly deadpan comedy. A plot, however clever, is only the clockwork; what matters is what kind of time a movie tells. "Nine Queens" is blessed with a gallery of well-drawn character roles, including the alcoholic mark and his two bodyguards; the avaricious widow who owns the "nine queens" and her much younger bleached-blond boyfriend, and Valeria the sister, who opposes Marcos' seamy friends and life of crime but might be willing to sleep with Gandolfo if she can share in the spoils." [ [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020510/REVIEWS/205100304/1023 Ebert, Roger] . "Chicago Sun Times", film festival, May 10, 2002.]

The "San Francisco Chronicle" film critic, Edward Guthmann, also reviewed the film positively and thought the actors performed quite well, writing, "Fast-paced and unerringly surprising, "Nine Queens" is nicely performed by a large cast, particularly Darín ("El hijo de la novia") as a goateed, less-than- perfect hoodwinker. 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." [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/04/26/DD186338.DTL Guthmann, Edward] . "The San Francisco Chronicle", film review, April 26, 2002.]

Remake

The film's screenplay was adapted in the 2004 film: "Criminal."

Awards

Wins
* Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor; Best Actor, Ricardo Darín; Best Cinematography, Marcelo Camorino; Best Director, Fabián Bielinsky; Best Editing, Sergio Zottola; Best Film; Best Original Screenplay, Fabián Bielinsky; Best Supporting Actress, Elsa Berenguer; 2001.
* Biarritz International Festival of Latin American Cinema: Best Actor, (tie) Ricardo Darín and Gastón Pauls; for "Nueve reinas"; 2001.
* Bogotá Film Festival: Audience Award, Fabián Bielinsky; Golden Precolumbian Circle, Best Director, Fabián Bielinsky; 2001.
* Lima Latin American Film Festival: Elcine First Prize, Fabián Bielinsky; 2001.
* Lleida Latin-American Film Festival: Audience Award, Fabián Bielinsky; Best Director, Fabián Bielinsky; 2001.
* Oslo Films from the South Festival: Audience Award, Fabián Bielinsky; 2001.
* Cognac Festival du Film Policier: "Grand Prix", Fabián Bielinsky; Premiere Award, Fabián Bielinsky; 2002.
* Fantasporto: Directors' Week Award, Best Screenplay, Fabián Bielinsky; 2002.
* Portland International Film Festival: Audience Award Best First Film, Fabián Bielinsky; 2002.
* Sant Jordi Awards: Sant Jordi; Best Foreign Actor, Ricardo Darín. Also for "La Fuga" (2001) and "El Hijo de la Novia" (2001); 2002.

References

External links

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* [http://www.cinenacional.com/peliculas/index.php?pelicula=2266 "Nueve reinas"] at the cinenacional.com sp icon