The Ninth Gate (1999)

I recommend The Ninth Gate to the movie watcher who loves a sense of mystery and an open-ended script that allows for debate, discussion and interpretation. Johnny Depp is remarkable as the curious Dean Corso and Frank Langella and Liana Telfer are a pleasure to watch in their respective roles. Watching this echoed reminders of the newer The Da Vinci Code yet I found this to be a superior film in both direction and execution. For people who prefer the movie to begin mysteriously and end with an explanation of everything throughout, you will not like this. Like a game of Clue, we are given the bare essentials, made to watch the investigation and are left to our own devices to formulate an answer. Roman Polanski did not intend for The Ninth Gate to be accepted by the masses but like I am doing right now, it is meant to be a timeless movie of varying opinions.

Adapted from a story in Pérez-Reverte’s novel about the quest for a lost chapter in The Three Musketeers. The title of the movie refers to the last of nine “gates” that must be passed through in order to conjure up Lucifer. The book Novem Portis de Umbrarum Regni – The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows was written in the 15th century by a man who reputedly co-authored the book with Lucifer himself. After being burned at a stake for his authorship, all copies of the book were destroyed save three versions, two rumored to be mere copies of the third. Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) owns one of the three books and hires Dean Corso (Johnny Depp), an infamously ruthless, book dealer to investigate the other two to ascertain that his is the genuine article. As Corso sets out on his quest for the books, he is drawn into a world of Satan worshipers, murder and history.

The biggest debate about this movie amongst film fans has been the ending and the mysterious girl who follows Corso. Her identity is never actually told within the movie but is hinted at in more ways than one as you witness her interraction with Corso and his pursuers. Depp’s Corso is an imperfect man whose vices aren’t limited to the pursuit of money, sex, alcohol and chain smoking.When he meets the girl you can sense a connection and by the time it all ends you should’ve grasped the link amongst all the elements leading up to it. This is the main reason for the mixed reviews by the enlightened versus the unenlightened reviewers. The Ninth Gate is immediately intriguing from the starting scenes up until the center point and then it drifts into a slower cadence of intellectual plot building. The scenery goes from the city and libraries of the rich to the landscapes of France and vast interiors of it’s chateaus and castles.

Roman Polanski directs this immensely underrated film and it is a breath of fresh air for those of you who are tired of the “popcorn thrillers” and the shallow attempts at intelligent moviemaking.