The Ninth Gate

Rating:
Summary: An eerie delight
Review: It has been a while since Roman Polanski has created a good movie. In the Ninth Gate Polanski shows us that he still has the knack for turning out an attractive and interesting film. The Ninth Gate is a neat razor cut out of a wonderful but convoluted book, The Club Dumas. The concept of a banned book from the 17th century slowly emerges out of a quest to authenticate a part of The Three Musketeers.
In the Ninth Gate our mercenary "hero" played by Johnny Depp is immediatly put in harm's way with a charge to authenticate a book supposedly co-authored by the devil. Polanksi skillfully leads us into a suspensful mystery that mid-way through begins to get atmospheric and supernatural.
What the movie does not do is toss buckets of blood into the viewer's face as a idiot's version of horror and suspense. What the movie does do is lead one deeper and deeper into a eerie and scary world of ruthless people and the creepy thought that the book might actually be written by the Devil. The music is at once beautiful and atmospheric. The supporting cast is perfect, especially Frank Langella who is haughty and villanous. We are also treated to Emmanualle Seigner who let us think she is an angel, or a demon, or a familiar.
The DVD version has a voice over commentary by Polanski who explains the ins and out of the film. There is also a feature that singles out the music. The DVD edition is crisp and clear.
Some have said that The ninth Gate displays Hitchcock style. It actually shows Polanski style with a nod to Val Lewton. It show us a character who increasingly has to look over his shoulder for fear of some dread fiend behind him. But the fiend is allowed to live mostly in the viewer's mind and not in the viewer's eye.

Rating:
Summary: This gateway to hell is ultimately disappointing.
Review: There seems to be an over-abundance of movies that start out good and end up disappointing at the finale. This technique of labeling movies has become mainstream nowadays, as is with films like "The Astronaut's Wife" and "Hackers." Roman Polanski's latest thriller, "The Ninth Gate," is a prime example of this, and despite a talented cast and gorgeous settings, it takes too long to deliver a less-than-satisfying ending that leaves viewers with more questions than answers. This is a shame, however, because up until the end, the plot builds up an intense amount of suspense that ultimately fizzles out.

The movie opens with a man by the name of Andrew Telfer killing himself in his rather elaborate library of antique texts, and a single book is missing from the shelves. Enter Boris Balkan (Frank Langella), who purchased the missing volume from Telfer and has hired Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) to compare it to others out there in order to be assured of its authenticity. Corso is told that the book is believed to be written by Satan himself, and that there are two copies in different places in Europe. Corso sets out to find them, first stopping by the Telfer estate to question Liana Telfer (Lena Olin) about the circumstances surrounding her husband's death. This leads to attempts by Telfer to retreive the book from Corso, and he flees with the book to Portugal, and then France, in search of the other two books. When he does get his hands on them, he learns that each one is different, but that they each hold a special part of the overall key to hell.

Accompany to the plot the menacing Liana Telfer, who is constantly following him, and a mysterious woman who appears out of nowhere at random points to help out Corso. All of this makes for two hours of splendid visuals, and a sense that there is always something spooky going on, even when there should not be. Unlike "End of Days," this Satanic spoof does not rely on gore and blatant special effects to tell its story. Instead, it uses the viewer's uneasiness to make them feel right at home.

However, some might suggest that the film is a bit too long to be enjoyable. I myself found it to be a bit tedious in certain places, but when you think you're about to drop off into a slumber, something will happen to keep you in the story once again. It is the ending, and what comes to pass to Corso because of his work, that will come as a shocking letdown. It will leave you with more questions than answers.

Acting talent is terrific. Depp seems perfectly cast as the sleepy Dean Corso, always on his feet without a break. Frank Langella is a good Boris Balkan, the man who becomes so insatiably obsessed with Satanic ritual. Olin gives a good performance as Telfer, who keeps Corso on his feet while she attempts to recover the book. And the guardian "angel" is played with mystery and sinister integrity by Emmanuelle Seigner.

Roman Polanski has done a fine job of bringing this very macabre picture of the doorway to hell to the screen, but trust me on this: you'll find yourself wanting to close it.

Rating:
Summary: A really funny movie, if you think the supernatural is silly
Review: I love this movie! Perhaps it is because I consider Satan and his friends to be about as real as the monster in the closet that scares you when you are about four years old. To me it comes across very strongly that the director was having a lot of fun scaring people with the boogeyman and very subtly winking at the audience and inviting them to join him in the joke. Great fun!

Rating:
Summary: one of Polanski's best (and most underrated)
Review: Rewatching this movie recently I was struck by how much it improves upon subsequent viewings. The subtle nuances of Johnny Depp's performance reveal themselves only to confirm that he is definitely one of the greatest living actors working today.

It's easy to see why mainstream audiences stayed away from this movie. There is an uneasy mix of playful, black humour and serious dread throughout that constantly keeps the viewer off balance -- in a good way. Also, Depp plays a decidedly unlikable character -- right from the start, where he screws a hapless family out of rare, expensive books, establishes that he is an unscrupulous book dealer only in it for the money. However, Depp's own natural charisma maintains interest in his character and even makes him kinda sympathetic in a weird way as he gradually realizes that he is in way over his head.

The use of European locations is excellent and effectively establishes an atmospheric vibe that gets me every time. It doesn't hurt that the film is shot by DP extraordinare, Darius Khondji (Seven). Every frame of this movie is beautifully shot.

The DVD itself is pretty good. The extras are a bit on the slim side with a superficial (and extremely brief!) Making Of featurette but the real crowning touch is an audio commentary by the man himself, Roman Polanski. He starts off a little slow but once he gets going, offers quite a few interesting tidbits and views on filmmaking (and, of course, the movie itself) and is definitely worth a listen for Polanski fans.

This is an underrated film that is definitely worth a look if you like something a little different in your films. It doesn't hold your hand like most Hollywood fodder does and this a refreshing change.

Rating:
Summary: Polanski proves: Never bet the Devil your head!
Review: Let's be clear about "The Ninth Gate": the movie is easily one of Roman Polanski's best, and certainly one of the most deliciously creepy, eerie, unsettling and deeply atmospheric films about diabolism and deviltry ever made.

With a script drawn from Spanish author Arturo Perez Reverte's quirky "Le Club Dumas", "The Ninth Gate" is the Faustian tale of an unscrupulous New York dealer in rare books (played with tactful understatement and curiosity by Johnny Depp) commissioned by secretive tycoon and rare book collector Boris Balkan (played to the hilt by Frank Langella, who nearly steals the show)to authenticate his copy of the Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows (De Umbrarum Regni Novem Portis).

That innocent-sounding assignment isn't nearly as easy as it sounds. For one thing, there are three copies of the demonic tome, printed by a 17th century Venetian bookbinder (later burned at the stake for his troubles) and reputedly capable of summoning Satan; Balkan wants Corso to examine the two other volumes (one in Spain, the other in Paris) and determine which is the forgery.

Another complication lies with Balkan's book: its previous owner hanged himself shortly after selling his volume to Balkan, and his wealthy widow (played by a supple and cat-like Lena Olin) wants it back. And if that weren't enough, as Corso is drawn deeper into the mystery, those around him begin to die horribly and mysteriously.

"The Ninth Gate" is a rich, heady, delicious mystery, and its palpable sense of growing menace is given nice counterpoint by Director of Photography Darius Khondji's ("Se7en")lush cinematography, which tracks Corso on his quest through a host of forbidding and enchanting locales: from a decaying Spanish manse, to a Parisian occult library, to a Black Mass in a French castle, to a shadowy and seemingly demon-haunted Manhattan (recreated by the exiled Polanski on a backlot), with the action culminating in a ruined French fortress.

The look of the film constitutes a character in itself; the Black Mass in Liana Telfer's restored family chateau recalls the orgy sequence in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (indeed, the films echo each other in their suggestion of malefic, monstrous forces gliding beneath their gilded and luxurious surfaces). This is a film that dwells on its haunted spaces, a film full of moonlit parapets and occult libraries full of leather-bound volumes. Even the woodcut details of the Nine Gates (drawn from Reverte's book) draw the viewer into a world of recondite and forbidden knowledge. Watching the movie is like being granted admittance into a secret society.

The creepiness is nicely accentuated by Wojciech Kilar's haunting score, which is by turns engaging and urging Corso on (the "Bolero" like theme undergirding Coros's flight to Madrid) and warding him off.

It has been said that the best terror is painted on a palette of silence: "The Ninth Gate" is a quiet film, a masterwork of atmosphere whose chief terrors are never directly seen. Indeed, Polanski took Reverte's eccentric and erudite "Club Dumas" and plumbed and distilled its essence into a creepy, understatedly scary little film, a minutely detailed little cinematic treasure box whose ultimate horror takes some time to truly sink in.

All of the performances are well done, even the small ones. Veteran actor Jack Taylor is splendid as the last scion of a dying aristocratic Spanish family, Emmanuelle Seigneur is alternately hideous and gorgeous as the mysterious Girl that hounds Corso's footsteps (watch her face closely in the movie's final minutes), and Barbara Jefford provides an elegant turn as occult maven and scholar Baroness Kessler.

There are a few mis-steps, but nothing fatal: the fight between Olin's thug and the Girl by the Seine is clumsily mounted, and the henchman himself, with his platinum blonde hair and effete mannerisms, more closely resembles an extra from a Madonna video than a Satanic assassin, but that's quibbling in a movie this rich and engaging.

With that out of the way: Talk about a mismatch between Marketing and Movie! I think most of the problems viewers had with "The Ninth Gate" stems from the way the film was advertised; the movie came out around the time of Arnold Schwarzenegger's "End of Days", and the marketing campaigns were similar: fire and brimstone quick cuts and heavy metal musical riffs, leading many to the conclusion that both films would offer CGI-demon slaying.

"The Ninth Gate" is not an action movie, nor is it straight horror. If that's what you want to see, then you really shouldn't waste your time. If, on the other hand, you want a deliciously atmospheric movie about a kind of diabolic treasure hunt (with the Devil Himself as the prize), then "The Ninth Gate" is eerily pungent, devilish fun. Old Scratch himself would be pleased.

Rating:
Summary: Something different
Review: I want to call it an action flick, but the action is pretty restrained. Maybe it could be an apolyptic movie, but it's too secular. Instead, it's what Depp seems to do well: interesting, even exciting, but not very well defined.

The plot is straightforward enough: the Mystic Book is out there, and Depp is tracking it down. He is stalked by agents unknown, death and destruction follow in his path, and I won't spoil the end (not that there are too many credible endings to choose from).

This isn't an effects-fest, but Depp holds my interest anyway. He's a lot more believable than most action heroes. For example, his character spends most of his time in libraries, so he's not a physically impressive specimen. Happy to say, he is never called on for feats of superhuman strength. He barely knows which end of a gun to point where - sure enough, his first attempt to act threatening with one fails comically.

The one false note was that Depp was always smoking and drinking around the precious books. Smoke if you must, but not where the smoke will settle into the centuries-old paper. Drink all you want, but not where there is the slightest chance of getting even a drop on it. The conservator wannabe in me shuddered every time I saw the movie's disregard for the artifacts.

I almost gave it three stars for being an ordinary action movie. I gave it one more star, though, for all the mistakes it doesn't make.

Rating:
Summary: "Mumbo jumbo, mumbo jumbo, mumbo jumbo . . ."
Review: ". . . boo!"

That's what Boris Balkan, whose collection of ars diavoli, works about (and by) the Devil, is unrivaled, says to a group of Satanists at the climax of director Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate. It's risky having a character say something sarcastic that could apply to the movie we're watching itself. The Ninth Gate doesn't resonate with deeper meanings like Rosemary's Baby, but as a Devil movie it's literate with good acting (Johnny Depp, Frank Langella, Emmanuelle Seigner, Lena Olin).

As much as I like subdued character-driven horror pictures like this, I agree with David Thomson in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film that it doesn't seem like Roman Polanski's film. If I didn't already know Polanski directed it, I wouldn't have guessed.

I did like the ending. It wasn't one of the apocalyptic clichés that usually wrap up this kind of horror film. And it leaves one character's nature not completely explained.

I guess you can't do a Devil movie without mumbo jumbo. Here Lena Olin's Baroness (or whatever) de St. Martin recites a Latin incantation; in Rosemary's Baby the coven next door to Rosemary and Guy murmur spells. If you're going to summon the Prince of Darkness you've got to sacrifice a virgin, or at least call him on his cell.

Rating:
Summary: A Multilayered Film
Review: By skimming the huge number of reviews, you'll quickly see that viewers tend to either really like or really hate this movie. There are apparently plenty of reasons to do either, and both. But the truth is that this is an intensely layered screenplay, and it assumes that members of the audience are either going to catch a lot of its subtleties or they are just going to see it as a flick on satanic intrigue that offers on mediocre thrills and chills.

As to the satanic veneer of this story, it is more a metaphor for how mainstream culture views the gnostic, mystical, or magical path, while also snickering at those who take satanism too literally. All the satanists in this movie are shallow buffoons, and it is the one guy who has no metaphysical pretensions (Dean Corso/Johnny Depp) who actually acquires the end that all the others were either seeking in vain or had despaired of ever finding.

Now let's dive beneath the surface to understand that it's a kind of dark "Don Quixote". The first half-hour of the movie is almost saturated with images and even references that establish the parallel. The major difference is that in Corso isn't intentionally setting off on a noble quest, and instead thinks of himself as nothing more than an opportunistic and somewhat unethical businessman. His quest is inititally just for money, but in the process he demonstrates a passion for solving mysteries. There is no turning back for him once he realizes that he is on the trail of the biggest and most significant mystery of existence, even if it takes his life.

Much of the movie's hidden messages and meanings are revealed through obscure symbolic references. Without a knowledge of Kabbalah, Tarot and alchemy, much of it will be quickly glossed over as occult imagery and "mumbo jumbo". The first key is the whole idea of "nine gates", which can easily be thought of as a Kabbalistic allusion to an ascension of the Tree of Life. The ancient book that serves as the central prop of the story contains nine engravings, each of which has elements that are instantly recognizable to those already familiar with the imagery of Tarot and alchemy.

One layer that a number of other reviewers have found is the theme of the guardian angel. There is a great deal of Gnostic and Hermetic significance in the way this theme is played out between Corso and "the girl" with blond hair and green eyes. Perhaps it suffices to say that initially Corso only catches fleeting glimpses of her and is distrustful, but in time their relationship builds to one of cooperation, trust, and intimate compansionship. He comes to see her as his guide, protector, and lover.

The entire story could also be analyzed in terms of Jungian psychology. Corso is of course the persona, and the girl is his anima, and his shadow is played by Black man with white hair, fitting in its reversal of Depp's white skin and black hair.

We could go into a lot more detail on each of the various layers already examined, but then what would be left for you to discover? ;-)

The only reason I gave this movie 4 stars instead of 5 was because I would have liked just a little more exploration and explanation of the story's depth for those who don't have an extensive background in esoteric, occult, and mystical studies.

Rating:
Summary: Unsuccessful ambiguity
Review: An amoral dealer in rare books (Johnny Depp) is hired by a wealthy collector (Frank Langella) to track down and compare the only three extant copies of a book supposedly written by the Devil himself. Of course, the purpose behind this is not immediately clear, and the major strength of this film is the way in which it follows Depp as he begins to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Director Roman Polanski shoots this in a way that allows us to make the discoveries right alongside him. By the end of the film, however, numerous details have accumulated without amounting to much. I was left in the dark about the true nature of Depp's mysterious female guardian (Emmanuelle Seigner), and the significance of the film's final shot was lost on me. What began as an intriguing mystery ends as a confused mess.

Rating:
Summary: I have mixed feelings
Review: I enjoyed the film and thought it quite credible in its portrayal of the sin of greed. I saw Depp less as a money-crazed book merchant than a "student" who simply took the opportunity to have other people support his studies, involuntarily or not. He was amoral in his pursuit of the "Ninth Gate" in the purest sense: He didn't do it for love of money or immortality but simply because he wanted to find out what was on the other side.

My mixed feelings come from not being able to recommend or purchase a work by a wanted fugitive from justice. Polanski raped a 13-year old girl and fled to France when he was found guilty. He remains at large only because France refuses to extradite him. Until he returns to the US on his own or in handcuffs to face the music I won't buy his work.