''The Card Player'' (Italian: ''Il cartaio'') is a 2004

giallo In Italian cinema, (; : ; from , ) is a genre that often contains Slasher film, slasher, thriller (genre), thriller, psychological horror, psychological thriller, Sexploitation film, sexploitation, and, less frequently, supernatural, supernat ...

film directed by

Dario Argento Dario Argento (; born 7 September 1940) is an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. His influential work in the horror film, horror and giallo genres during the 1970s and 1980s has led him to being referred to as the "Master of the ...

. The film stars

Stefania Rocca Stefania Rocca (born 24 April 1971) is an Italian actress. She is best known for her roles in the films ''Nirvana'' (1997), ''The Talented Mr. Ripley'' (1999) and ''Dracula'' (2002). Rocca also was the lead in Dario Argento's '' The Card Player' ...

and

Liam Cunningham Liam Cunningham (born 2 June 1961) is an Irish actor. He is known for playing Davos Seaworth in the HBO epic-fantasy series ''Game of Thrones''. Cunningham has been nominated for the London Film Critics' Circle Award, the British Independent ...

and is Argento's second giallo feature of the decade (following '' Sleepless''). The film features a brief role by Fiore Argento, the director's eldest daughter. She had previously appeared in her father's film ''

Phenomena A phenomenon ( phenomena), sometimes spelled phaenomenon, is an observable Event (philosophy), event. The term came into its modern Philosophy, philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be ...

''.

Plot

The film centers around a serial killer known as "The Card Player", who is kidnapping young women in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. Using a

webcam A webcam is a video camera which is designed to record or stream to a computer or computer network. They are primarily used in Videotelephony, video telephony, live streaming and social media, and Closed-circuit television, security. Webcams can b ...

set-up, the killer challenges the police by forcing them to play hands of Internet

poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

. If the police lose, the kidnapped victim is tortured and murdered on-screen. When a British tourist is among the girls murdered, policeman John Brennan (Cunningham) is assigned the case and quickly teams up with Italian detective Anna Mari (Rocca). The duo have their work cut out for them when the Police Chief's daughter (Argento) becomes the killer's latest kidnapping victim.

Cast

as Anna Mari *

as John Brennan * Silvio Muccino as Remo *

Adalberto Maria Merli Adalberto Maria Merli (born 14 January 1938) is an Italian actor and voice actor. Biography Born in Rome, Merli is active on film and television and he has appeared in over 27 films since 1965. He had his breakout role in the 1968 RAI televisi ...

as the Police Commissioner *Fiore Argento as Lucia Marini *

Cosimo Fusco Cosimo Massimo Fusco (born 23 September 1962) is an Italian actor. Biography Born in Matera, Italy, Fusco was educated in Los Angeles, Rome, and Paris. He is best known for his role as Paolo, one of Rachel Green, Rachel's boyfriends in the Ame ...

as Berardelli *Mia Benedetta as Francesca *Giovanni Visentin as C.I.D. Chief *

Vera Gemma Vera Gemma (born 4 July 1970) is an Italian actress. Her father was the film star actor Giuliano Gemma. Filmography * ''Vera'' (2022) * '' The Card Player'' (2004) * ''Scarlet Diva ''Scarlet Diva'' is a 2000 Italian drama film by actress and f ...

as Third Victim

Production

Originally conceived as a sequel to the director's own ''

The Stendhal Syndrome ''The Stendhal Syndrome'' ''(Ital. La Sindrome di Stendhal)'' is a 1996 Italian horror film written and directed by Dario Argento and starring his daughter Asia Argento, with Thomas Kretschmann and Marco Leonardi. It was a critical and commerci ...

'' to be titled ''In the Dark'', the film was rewritten when that film's star,

Asia Argento Asia Argento (; born Aria Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento; 20 September 1975) is an Italian actress and filmmaker. The daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento, she has had roles in several of her father's features and achieved mainstream success with ...

, declined to be involved. The setting was changed from Venice to Rome to bring costs down and recapture the feel of Argento's early giallo, ''

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage ''The Bird with the Crystal Plumage'' () is a 1970 ''giallo'' film written and directed by Dario Argento, in his directorial debut. It stars Tony Musante as an American writer in Rome who witnesses a serial killer targeting young women and tries ...

''. The director said: "My fans love it when I shoot in Rome. The city is the most wonderful film set ever, like a dusty museum with its cocktail of rundown buildings and beautiful open spaces."

Release

The film was released in Italy in January 2004. In the United States, following a small number of cinema screenings, it was released on DVD by

Anchor Bay Entertainment The revived Anchor Bay Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company owned by Umbrelic Entertainment co-founders Thomas Zambeck and Brian Katz. Anchor Bay Entertainment markets and releases "new release genre ...

later that year. The film premiered on DVD in the UK in October 2004, after receiving a 15 certificate from the

BBFC The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of films exhibited at cinemas and video works (su ...

Critical reception

''The Card Player'' received a negative response from critics. The film has an approval rating of 20% on movie

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on ten reviews. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote, "''The Card Player'' ..doesn't break the unhappy streak of his rgento'slater films. Though it's based on a promisingly outrageous premise ..the film unfolds as a tired, thoroughly conventional police procedural that might as well be titled '' CSI: Roma''."

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...

's review was unfavorable, writing, "''The Card Player'' offers a fair amount of suspense and at least one memorable

set piece In film production, a set piece is a scene or sequence of scenes whose execution requires complex logistical planning and considerable expenditure of money. Origin and usage of the term In its original meaning, the term is used to label scene ...

, but for those even remotely familiar with Argento's canon, there's the feeling that it's all been done before – and handled with much more style and confidence."

Maitland McDonagh Maitland McDonagh () is an American film critic, writer-editor and podcaster. She is the author of ''Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento'' (1991) and other books and articles on horror and exploitation films, as well as ...

also gave the film a negative review, criticizing the screenplay for being "perfunctory" and for going "to so little trouble to hide the killer's identity that even inattentive viewers will know who's to blame long before the police figure it out."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Card Player, The 2004 films 2004 crime thriller films 2004 independent films 2004 horror films 2000s English-language films 2000s mystery films 2000s serial killer films 2000s Italian-language films Italian films about gambling Italian horror films Italian independent films Italian serial killer films Films about poker Films about snuff films Films directed by Dario Argento Films scored by Claudio Simonetti Films with screenplays by Dario Argento Films set in Rome Giallo films Police detective films English-language horror films English-language crime thriller films English-language mystery films Medusa Film films