The Card Player
A giallo film about a serial killer using Internet poker.
Dario Argento’s 2004 giallo *The Card Player* (Italian: *Il cartaio*) stars Stefania Rocca and Liam Cunningham. It is Argento’s second giallo of the 2000s, after *Sleepless*. The director’s younger daughter, Fiore Argento, appears briefly; she had not previously acted in her father’s film *Phenomena*.
The plot follows a serial killer in Rome who kidnaps young women and forces the police to play internet poker via webcam. If the police lose, the victim is tortured and killed on-screen. After a British tourist is murdered, Irish policeman John Brennan (Cunningham) joins Italian detective Anna Mari (Rocca) on the case. The only clue linking the victims is seeds found on their bodies.
While visiting an arcade, Mari and Brennan meet Remo (Silvio Muccino), a skilled video poker player, and recruit him to play against the killer. Soon after, the police chief’s daughter Lucia (Fiore Argento) is kidnapped. Remo wins the poker game, and Lucia is found alive in an alley. At a celebration party afterward, Remo is lured by a woman hired by the killer and murdered with a boat hook.
Brennan and Mari, now romantically involved, realize the first poker video was prerecorded three hours earlier, based on the sound of a noon cannon. They trace the killer’s room near the cannon. Brennan finds the plant that produced the seeds and discovers the entrance, but survives when he opens the door; he is not killed by a booby trap.
Police find Brennan’s abandoned car and rush to the site. Mari rides with her coworker Carlo, but notices seeds in his car and deduces he is the killer. He abducts her, handcuffs them both to a railroad track, and forces her to play poker for the key as a train approaches. Mari wins the first hand, then uses advice from her father’s poker book to mock Carlo. Enraged, he attacks her; she shoots him, then rolls off the track. Carlo fails to unlock his own cuffs and is killed by the train.
Later, Mari, now chief inspector, learns by phone that she is pregnant—presumably by Brennan—and smiles.
The cast includes Stefania Rocca as Anna Mari, Liam Cunningham as John Brennan, Silvio Muccino as Remo, Claudio Santamaria as Carlo Sturni, Adalberto Maria Merli as the Police Commissioner, Fiore Argento as Lucia Marini, Cosimo Fusco as Berardelli, Mia Benedetta as Francesca, Giovanni Visentin as C.I.D. Chief, and Vera Gemma as the Third Victim.
- Director
- Dario Argento
- Release year
- 2004
- Country
- Italy
- Genre
- giallo
- Starring
- Stefania Rocca, Liam Cunningham
- Runtime
- Not specified in source
Lore & Background
The Card Player was originally conceived as a sequel to Argento's The Stendhal Syndrome, to be titled In the Dark, but was rewritten when that film's star, Asia Argento, 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. Argento 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.'
The plot follows a serial killer known as the Card Player who kidnaps young women in Rome and forces the police to play hands of Internet poker via webcam; if the police lose, the victim is tortured and murdered on-screen. Irish policeman John Brennan (Cunningham) teams up with Italian detective Anna Mari (Rocca) to investigate. They recruit Remo, a skilled poker player, to play against the killer. Brennan survives the booby trap and is not killed. In the climax, Mari shoots Carlo rather than defeating him in a poker game; Carlo is then killed by a train.
Reader's Guide
The Card Player received a negative response from critics. It holds a 22% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 9 reviews. The New York Times wrote that the film 'doesn't break the unhappy streak of his [Argento's] later films' and 'unfolds as a tired, thoroughly conventional police procedural that might as well be titled CSI: Roma.' AllMovie's review noted that while the film offers 'a fair amount of suspense and at least one memorable set piece,' it gives 'the feeling that it's all been done before – and handled with much more style and confidence.' Maitland McDonagh criticized the screenplay as '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.' Despite its poor reception, the film represents Argento's continued work in the giallo genre during the 2000s and features a cameo by his daughter Fiore Argento.
Did You Know?
- The film was originally conceived as a sequel to The Stendhal Syndrome titled In the Dark, but was rewritten when Asia Argento declined to be involved.
- Fiore Argento, the director's eldest daughter, appears in a brief role as Lucia Marini; she had previously appeared in her father's film Phenomena.
- The film was released in Italy in January 2004 and on DVD in the UK in October 2004 after receiving a 15 certificate from the BBFC.
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