Nine Queens

24 seems to be the magic number. Let’s have a quick look at other releases that are based on a single 24 hours. We have Doug Liman’s black comedy Go!, as well as the hot TV series starring Kiefer Sutherland 24, and now this fine Argentinean film Nueve Reinas, or for the English-speakers Nine Queens. With the recent popularity of the 24-hour type production, this film neatly falls into that same category.

"Listen mate, who are you calling a queen?"

The best way to describe it is as a “con� film, and no not the cruddy action type “con� such as the “air� variety. Films such as Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Ocean’s Eleven and Wild Things can compare to this, but Nine Queens still stands out as an original film. From the opening frame you, as an audience member, are being played all the way through to the final frame where it can all be seen. Pay attention to the subtle details though, as it will all fit together in the end, but whether you can figure it out beforehand is an entirely different hand of cards.

Set in Buenos Aires over a period of 24 hours, Juan (Pauls), a rookie con man gets busted by Marcos (Darin), a master criminal. But why does this guy help the naïve novice out? The pair team up though, after proving their talents to each other, and themselves, to pull off the con to end all cons. They must sell the Nine Queens, a set of stamps dating back to the 1920s. But these aren’t the Nine Queens – these have been carefully and lovingly duplicated with precision, including the period paper from the 1920s. Trouble comes, though, when the deal is set and the stamps are destroyed and the real cons start. And so we start the ride, but you won’t pick the end until the end - when you realise that you've been conned.

The video is presented in an anamorphically-enhanced aspect of 1.85:1. As we have generally come to expect from Madman the transfer is stunning to say the least, shy of one slight, yet sadly major problem. This is a foreign language film, and requires subtitles. Given the solo language track on this disc, Madman have opted to burn the subtitles onto the picture. Sure, great, no problem (excluding those fluent in Spanish) but one big mastering muck up is obvious for the entire length of the film. When this anamorphic picture is at its full size it is at the PAL resolution of 720 x 576, so everything is stretched upwards. When the picture was this size, the subtitles were added to the picture, but were not stretched themselves. What results are some squashed subtitles for the film. They are still readable, but slightly harder to make out.

"You'd look like me if you had to read my squashed subtitles this fast."

The film is scattered with various film artefacts, including a slight wash of grain, as well as a variety of scratches, specks and defects in the source print. These occur frequently, but aren’t terribly distracting. Colours are fairly muted, and it appears as if this film is trying to push into a dull colour palette. But what would have suited the film much better would have been a sepia tone throughout, as suggested by the images on the back cover. This would have added so much more interest to the picture and would have worked much better. But no loss, just alter the colours on your television! Compression related artefacts occur occasionally in the form of aliasing and slight posterisation on particular sequences. But this is the nitty gritty of the transfer and the popcorn junkie wouldn’t notice these. One effect that is noticeable is the jumpy nature of the picture. This slight vertical movement isn’t really distracting, just more apparent.

The burnt-in subtitles are relatively easy to read, given their squashed appearance, but as can tend to happen, they are on the screen for some short periods as some long English phrases can be over quite quickly in Spanish, which can also be seen on Alejandro Amenábar’s Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes), also available through Madman. The use of the burnt subtitles is great as they have a much softer appearance than sharp, player generated subtitle tracks, but cannot be removed for audiences fluent in Spanish, nor altered to different languages.

The 38:05 layer change whizzes past, with a slight gap in the audio the only clue to its presence.

The solo Dolby Digital 2.0 Spanish track is suitable for the genre and is relatively neat. There is no surround presence at all, but it isn’t necessarily needed. Of course some scenes may have benefited from this, but there's no real loss either way. It at least forces you to concentrate on your reading skills rather than being distracted by a swirling surround soundtrack.

"Sorry, but I have to return this suit to the Men In Black"

Dialogue is clear throughout, even if you can’t understand a word of it... except people’s names. At times the soundtrack wears a little thin, and can sound a tad distorted, but it's nothing that is overly noticeable or distracting. One interesting point is the amount of noise on the soundtrack – the gap in this giving away the layer change. Ambient noises such as walking, working and the like are constantly behind the dialogue and demonstrate the lower production values of the film.

"You posted what with that amount of postage?"

Madman have applied their regular extras package to this disc, coming up with a reasonable, if brief, bunch of extras. The animated 16:9-enhanced menus offer aesthetically rich menus with subtle animation. And no ‘set up’ option either – a big give away of this disc’s lack of language options.

The 24-minute Making-of featurette is a good watch, giving a background to the film as well as the usual promotional information. Let’s just be happy that Madman decided to actually subtitle these features unlike those on Abre Los Ojos.

The Image and Poster Gallery is just a 12-image gallery with stills from the film underneath a gackily clunky frame. However, there are no poster images as the title suggests.

The Trailers and TV Spots section contains three trailers and four TV spots for Nine Queens - the US trailer (1:54), the Argentinean trailer (0:58) and the international trailer (1:51). The four TV spots are in a 1:53 title, with only one chapter so they can’t be easily skipped. Each runs for approximately 30 seconds, as spots tend to do. Again, we’re all thankful that these are subtitled appropriately!

Now what Madman disc is complete without the Madman Propaganda? Well this disc features trailers for seven other Madman films, which are Amores Perros (2:09), 24 Hour Party People (2:08), Samsara (2:16), Dinner Rush (1:55), The Tracker (2:06, not 16:9 enhanced for once), Spirited Away (2:18) and Brotherhood of the Wolf (1:36).

This film is a great example of foreign filmmaking with a quick, witty script and more twists than Chubby Checker. Madman’s transfer is quite nice, but a slight glitch in the video mastering sticks with you throughout the film. Don’t hesitate grabbing this one for a night’s entertainment - ah, but can you trust my word, or is this another con? Well just get it and find out for yourself!