WATCH NOW
The Ninth Gate is a satanic thriller released in 1999 by the famous director Roman Polanski. The feature opens with rather decent title credits, after which it succumbs considerably, but very slowly. This pacing gives the audience some hope, only to realize much later on that the movie does not pay off. The movie has something good in it, and I kept hoping Polanski would grab its plot and shake life into it, but unfortunately, he did not. What? is what I underlined on my notepad after the last scene. The film features Johnny Depp in a strong, albeit, uncaring performance. He plays Dean Corso, a rare book trader with deeply questionable morals. He is then employed by Boris Balkan, played by Frank Langella, a millionaire collector who owns a copy of The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of the Shadows, published in Venice in 1666 by none other than Aristide Torchia. The legend goes that he crafted the engravings from the work of Satan himself. There are only two other remaining books and Depp is directed to find them so that he can study the engravings.
The Spanish Inquisition tortured Torchia to death not to mention Andrew Telfer, one of the more recent owners of the book which he later sold to Balkan. This Telfer character hangs himself in an earlier part of the book. Look Corso is flying to Europe where he interacts with two other owners, a respectable aristocrat in Portugal (Jack Taylor) and a Parisian elderly wheelchair-bound Baroness (Barbara Jefford). Meanwhile, Liana (Lena Olin), his widow, attempts to feign indifference all whilst she has developed an unhealthy fascination with the castle and tries to take it back. Corso departs to Europe where he meets the other owners, a Parisian Barones Jeffford in a wheelchair who was quite elderly and a jack Tayler, a puppet-like role aristocrat eyeball watching from Portugal.
On the topic of Corso’s elaborate search, what strikes me as most intriguing is the manner in which he goes about accomplishing a loss roughly translates to battle in French. The blend of Depp and Polanski into a simple film highlights the dream-like state we seem to have already forgotten Polanski returning to help assist Bogart with his rare book purchase in The Big Sleep. Corso, now a part of a multitude of strange and rich book collectors moves from one bizarre millionaire collector to another, often running into dangerous situations that push him closer to death. All of this while noticing that a young woman is following him (Emmanuelle Seigner), Shrouded in mystery, she once threatened his life by bodily moving so fast that we are left to assume that she can fly while he is saved by her martial arts skills.
The engravings in the three editions of the book will not be explained in this article. A variety of other motifs involving Balkan, the Telfer widow, and the unexplainable young woman also remain untold. Each of their tales is equally detailed yet perplexing in its own right, as they tell us one thing but self-contradict. So if some engravings were personally drawn by Satan, and if his assembly summons the Prince of Darkness, then it poses a threat, right? Or is it a promise? And the conclusion of the book is that would be an impossible evil outcome, no? But isn’t the bizarre thing that it somewhat feels like a victory? And with regards to the woman is she good, bad, or both? Friend or enemy? You answer that.
What is striking with the material is how Polanski gives credit to its core intrigue without straying into ‘End Of Days’ style cheesy special effects. Need I say more about the fact that Satan does not need to show himself? He can reside entirely within human nature which is, after all, his drafting board. While Corso is walking in his wheelchair, “The Big Sleep” pops into mind which reminds me of Bogart’s call on an elderly, eccentric character and the scene where he visits the booksellers and calls on the twin Ceniza brothers is breathtaking. The neat FX touch where both the twins are played by one actor, Jose Lopez Rodero was something I relished.
The movie illustrates its deaths through the lens of the characters’ Tarot cards. They modify the Telfer widow character (Olin) to sound eviler than she is by (I think) layering her voice with some electronic undertones. The atmosphere produced by the Telfer widow is enhanced, and so is the speech. The speech is as sophisticated as it needs to be instead of how the lazy masses speak. The speech clues the audience into Corso’s reasoning as he attempts to decipher engravings and Balkan’s actual ideology. A film of such significant subjects should center on more than what happens to a few people. While I did not want amazing special effects, I did want some amazing facts. Anything, instead of just fading to white.
To watch more movies like The Ninth Gate (1999) visit 123movies
Also Watch for more movies like:
