The Ninth Gate

Horrorphile

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The Ninth Gate

December 1st 2009 22:42

Roman Polanski is one of my very favourite directors. I’ve seen almost every one of his seventeen features, most of them I consider superb examples of cinema, and several are personal favourites (Cul-de-Sac, Macbeth, The Tenant, Bitter Moon). He is one of a handful of directors who crafts his films with pure cinematic storytelling and imbues them with the richness of literature, time and time again (although to be brutally honest Death and the Maiden leaves me cold, and I have no interest in seeing Pirates, but hey, no director is perfect).

Johnny Depp as Corso

The Ninth Gate (1999) is a rough diamond; fantastic premise and mood, great production values and casting, some excellent set-pieces, but dramatically flawed, with a flat, dissipated denounement. A shame considering the source material is so potent. Based on the novel El Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte and screen-written by John Brownjohn, Enrique Urbizu, and Roman Polanski the story describes the earnest endeavours and misadventures of Dean Corso (Johnny Depp), a rare books-dealer with questionable ethics.

Emmanuelle Seigner as The Girl

Corso is hired by a very rich book collector, Boris Balkan (Frank Langella), to validate his recently purchased copy of The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows by 17th century author Aristide Torchia, one of only three copies that exist in the world, a book that contains nine coded engravings which are supposed to summon the Devil. Balkan claims the book may be a forgery, and hires Corso to travel to Europe to locate and acquire the other two copies.

Lena Olin as Liana Telfour

Corso finds Liana Telfer (Lena Olin), the widow of the book’s original owner, on his back, as she is very keen to have the book back in her possession. After leaving New York following tragic circumstances Corso finds the bad luck has followed him to Spain. He is befriended by a mysterious and alluring woman (Emmanuelle Seigner, credited as The Girl), who manages to rescue Corso on several occasions. Eventually Corso discovers Balkan’s darker intent and finds his own life on a precarious, yet thrillingly sensual edge.

Frank Langella as Balkan

I can watch Depp in pretty much anything and he plays the disheveled and hapless opportunist with effortless grubby charm. Langella is superbly cast as the greedy Satanist, and Polanski’s sultry wife Seigner fits the role of terra firma angel hand in glove. Polanski always casts wonderful character actors and/or striking unknowns in support roles, and there are plenty on parade here. The other star of the movie is the brooding cinematography, by one of my favourites, Darius Khondji.

Balkan leads a Black Mass

Polanski, as per usual, fills the movie with elegant symbolism and iconography, some obvious, others subtle: during the opening credits the camera’s point-of-view steadily advances and floats through a set of nine doors, the keypad combination to Balkan’s penthouse office and library is “666”, the pen that Corso uses is a limited edition Montblanc Agatha Christie, the cigarettes Liana Telfer smokes is a brand called Black Devils, the car Corso and The Girl drive in France is a Dodge Viper painted red (the car’s parent company Chrysler emblem is a pentagram), and Chateau Puivert (the ninth gate where Corso ends up) is known as The Devil’s Tower.

Corso has his defences stripped

The Ninth Gate is not amongst Polanski’s very best movies, but it has more intrigue, mood and atmosphere than half a dozen Hollywood flicks trying to do the same thing. This is a movie steeped in supernatural danger, but while the last ten minutes of the movie push into the surreal and unexpected, they also feel rushed and border precariously on the risible. Still, Polanski lingers with the occult door ajar, and that’s always the best angle ...

Carnal heaven or carnal hell?

Here's the trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

7 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Natalina

December 2nd 2009 05:01

My Life My Muse
Beta Girl Blog

This is one of my favorite movies. I love so much about it. I agree with you that the end seems a little rushed, but wow...there is just so much to enjoy. I adore the diabolical music in this film! The mood is just right. All of the occult references.... total Natalina excitement overload. Love it to bits!

Comment by JohnDoe

December 2nd 2009 23:50

Film & TV on DVD

Hi Bryn,

I really enjoyed the Ninth Gate (maybe it was the obsessive collector in me). The finale was exactly how it all needed to end IMO. The film itself felt like an alternate take on Roman's Rosemary's Baby type plotting.

Either way it works for me, but I admit the film was flawed in structure and pace.

Comment by Bryn

December 3rd 2009 01:27

Horrorphile

JD, oh I agree the ending is how it should've been, but it's still kinda clunky, perhaps it's the script editing or something.

Comment by Quin Goot

December 3rd 2009 04:29

Bagman's Gazette

Bryn,

I haven't seen this one for a while, but remember having similar thoughts about the flick overall. I also like Depp in most of what he does and remember enjoying Langella's performance. It was great that Emmanuelle Seigner was in this too.

Comment by chane71

August 24th 2011 20:24

Hi everybody!. How are you?.

01 .- In what Web Site I can see nine woodcuts (and more the woodcut-cover called: "DE REGNIER NOVEM VMBRARVM PORTIS"? #Large size and the text at the bottom of the woodcut#.

NOTE: woodcut, etching front is that first the reader is to start browsing the book ... You know, this engraving is a tree with a snake coiled around him like the two serpents of the Caduceus of the god Mercury, and biting her own tail as well as does Urógoros ... On top of this tree is a cloud out of which 3 lightning strikes and one of the branches of the tree and that branch breaks.

I get this woodcut, BUT that is identical to that shown in the movie ... There is an engraving that is what appears in the book "The Club Dumas", it does not want it.

02 .- What Web can be seen #full size# comparisons of different woodcuts of three books: The Balkan, the Fargas and Kessler?, I would like to see the prints are signed by AT and engravings signed by LCF.

Hopefully these things available on the Internet!, Because they've searched Google-size prints and crisp, which can see all the details and comparison between Aristide Torchia and Lucifer and I have not found yet.

Please notify me at this email: alexander_garcia_1971 #at# hot....

Bye!.

Comment by Gowaduv

October 26th 2011 17:43

This is a great movie, Polanski nailed it. I have to disagree that the "source material is so potent" (unless you mean potent like old cheese, or a half finished bottle of beer that was left behind the couch

). I slogged my way through the mass-market English translation of "El Club Dumas," and though I agree the movie was at times clunky (and convoluted and had bouts of cheesy one-liners) I thought the book was so much worse. The book was so forgettable that I started it a second time before I realized I'd already read it.
Nice writeup of the film, though. I'm gonna go add some Polanski to my Netflix queue (depending on what's available in the States).

Comment by Bryn

October 26th 2011 21:38

Horrorphile

Gowaduv, Polanski only occasionally doesn't nail it. When I said the source material was potent I was referring to the subject matter, rather than the novel itself, as I haven't read it, but it comes across as misleading, my apologies. Have you seen much other Polanski? He's one of my very favourite directors, especially the first thirty or years of his career.

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