Nine Queens

Nine Queens
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Fabián Bielinsky
Written by	Fabián Bielinsky
Produced by	Cecilia Bossi Pablo Bossi
Starring	Gastón Pauls Ricardo Darín Leticia Brédice Tomás Fonzi
Cinematography	Marcelo Camorino
Edited by	Sergio Zottola
Music by	César Lerner
Distributed by	Buena Vista International
Release date	August 31, 2000
Running time	114 minutes
Country	Argentina
Language	Spanish
Budget	$1,500,000 estimated.
Box office	$12,413,888

Nine Queens (Spanish: Nueve Reinas) (2000) is an Argentine crime drama film written and directed by Fabián Bielinsky. The picture features Gastón Pauls, Ricardo Darín, Leticia Brédice, and Tomás Fonzi, among others.

The film was nominated for 28 awards and won 21 of them.

It tells the story of two con artists who meet, apparently 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 fully check if the stamps are authentic.

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.

At the end, the film makes a dramatic plot change revealing who is the truly scammed, and who is not.

Cast

• Gastón Pauls as Juan / Sebastian
• 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

Background

The main character of the film is trying to remember the name of a Rita Pavone song throughout the film. The song by Rita Pavone "Il Ballo Del Mattone" plays as the 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, 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.

Remake

The film's screenplay was adapted in the 2004 film Criminal. It was also used as a basis for the Hindi movie Bluffmaster! and malayalam film Gulumaal.

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."

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."

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.

External links

• Nueve reinas at IMDb
• Nine Queens at Box Office Mojo
• Nueve reinas at the cinenacional.com Template:Sp icon