Your Account   Help   |   Your Basket: Empty   Checkout

 

Coming Soon      Bestsellers      Recommended      Special Offers      MovieMail Latest

MovieMailMovieMail HomeRed Desert
Home > World Cinema > South America > Nine Queens

Recommended Nine Queens

Fabian Bielinsky, 2001

Star Review

A day in the life of two Argentinian con men: fresh-faced Juan (Gaston
Pauls) is taken under the wing of the more experienced Marcos (Ricardo
Darin), and they stumble into a scam selling forged Weimar Republic stamps
(the Nine Queens of the title) to a shady Spanish businessman staying at the
plush hotel where Marcos’s estranged sister Valencia (Letitia Bredice)
works.

The opening thirty minutes of Fabian Bielinsky’s film serve as a compendium
of contemporary (and very workable) tricks and set-ups. The Sting famously
did much the same thing, but its con-tricks on 1930s racketeers won’t have
been much help to audiences in the 1970s. Should, however, you ever want to
get yourself a free newspaper, or cash from rich widows, Nine Queens’ first
half-hour alone could be considered invaluable.

The remainder is an enjoyably tricksy thriller in the style of a recent
David Mamet, with some of the magician (or stage director)’s flamboyant
showmanship replaced with a little noise and bustle and grit. Naturally, the
plot revolves around one massive piece of misdirection designed to make the
viewer as much of a stooge as any of the characters in the film, but the
plotting would be satisfying enough without the aid of a last-reel twist.
Bielinsky here does for Buenos Aires what Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu did
for Mexico City in Amores Perros, his restless camera taking us from the
seedy bars and clubs of the Argentinian underground to pristine corporate
washrooms and anonymous hotel suites, painting a lightly satirical portrait
of a society corrupt from top to bottom.

Mike McCahill on 2nd January 2003

View all 124 of Mike McCahill’s reviews

[ Show Film Description ]

Reviews

Share your thoughts - write a review

Related Genres

£5.99

RRP: £19.99
Save £14.00 (70%)
Free Delivery on UK Orders!

Availability
This product should be despatched within 4 days. Delivery times

Ratings for this DVD

Average Rating

5/5

Log in to place your vote!

Related Special Offers
Film Details

Director

Fabian Bielinsky

Year

2001

Country

South America

Cast

Gastón Pauls, Ricardo Darin

Technical Details

Certificate

15

Length

113 mins

Label

OPTIM

Format

DVD Colour

Region

2

Cat No

OPTD0017

Main Language

SPANISH

Subtitles

English

Customers who liked this also liked...

2002, Carlos Sorin, DVD

 

£7.99

RRP: £19.99
Save £12.00

Historias Minimas

Aka Minimal Stories. A Patagonian road movie and an affectionate portrait of three small town heroes pursuing...

More Details

 

MovieMail Latest

 

 

 

Monthly Film Catalogue

December Film Catalogue The Digital Edition of our December Film Catalogue is out now!

 

 

Films starring Gastón Pauls

 

Films starring Ricardo Darin

 

 

 

 

 RSS Feeds | MovieMail Podcasts | December Film Catalogue | Subscribe to our email newsletter!

Browse our Film catalogue: DVDs by Genre | DVDs by Country | DVDs by Director | DVDs by Actor

New Releases | Bestsellers | Recommended | Special Offers | MovieMail Latest

 

 

MovieMail use a Thawte certificate to ensure secure transmission of your information. Click here for for information HACKER SAFE certified sites prevent over 99.9% of hacker crime.

 

 

For questions or assistance, call us on (+44) 0844 776 0900 or email enquiries@moviemail-online.co.uk

© 1996-2008 MovieMail Ltd., All Rights Reserved. Find out more about MovieMail