The ninth gate

Year of release : 1999

Run time : 2h13m

Genre : Thriller / Mystery / Neo Noir / Horror

Cast : Johnny Depp , Lena Olin, Emmanuelle Seigner

Director : Roman Polanski

The movie was directed, produced and co-written by Roman Polanski, and is loosely based on the 1993 novel "The Club Dumas" by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

Dean Corso is a rare book dealer from New York who is hired by a very rich man, Boris Balkan, to find out which one of the three surviving copies of "The nine gates of the kingdom of shadows" that the author Aristide de Torchia wrote with the devil, is the authentic one.

Corso first talks to Liana Telfer, who's husband sold the book to Balkan right before he k1lled himself. After the woman says the book was nonsense, she shows up at Corso's place offering s3x for the book.

Later on, we find out the book was not the husband's but Liana's, as she is a devil worshiper.

She has her men chasing Corso, attempting to b3at him up and steal the book.

Corso is saved by a girl, who keeps on showing up, which is probably a good thing, as people,including Corso's friends, start dying after he talked to them and showed them the book .

Corso travels to a few countries in Europe, talking to the two other people who have what they believe to be original copies of the book, and realizes all three copies are different, having hidden the wisdom of the book among them.

 

I personally enjoyed the movie, it's intriguing, it kept me interested. I don't understand the hate it received, it's atmospheric, it pulls you into its lore.

SPOILER At first I thought the one leaving bodies behind Corso was Telfer, but I think it was Balkan, who chose instead of doing the work which would open the 9th gate for him, to let another do it for him.

I think the Ceniza brothers might have forged the book and split it into 3 copies with wisdom hidden inside it, based on the first conversation they have with Corso. I think they reappear, younger, at the end of the movie, as the kid we can't see now, says the same "Si,si mama!" but there's no child there anymore! Again, one of them smokes, while the other doesn't!

Also, one of them is depicted as the angel in one of the book versions, which might suggest apart from the fact that they are immortal, that maybe they are the apostles, Peter and Paul, based on their names?!

 

I think the girl who helps him, depicted as "the wh0re of Babylon" in the book, is just that, or a witch or the devil itself. She can fly, her eyes keep on changing, and at the end her face keeps on changing like a shape shifter's! I think that when she put her blood on Corso it was a ritual, he was chosen.

One thing that bothered me, was Corso was supposed to deal in rare books but he and the ones handling the rare,old books never wore gloves, and always touched them with their bare hands,not to mention, Corso was chain smoking! Not just that, one character drops cigarette ashes on it!

I know that Polanski is a praised director, but I didn't find the way he directed the movie impressive or better than other directors direction, quite the opposite.

The actors were good.

The soundtrack was good.

The movie received negative reviews, and flopped in North America. At the end of its run,it grossed 58.4 million dollars at the box office world wide, against a budget of 38 million.

Cinema Score audiences gave the movie the first D-, I've seen, on a scale from A+ to F!

Johnny Depp was the director's first choice as the lead,but Depp was 34 while his character was 40. There were some creative differences between the two, as Depp decided to play the character flat, and the director wanted something else.

You can watch the full movie for free, if you follow this link :

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9h60xo

Rating : Worth a watch !