The Ninth Gate [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Amazon.co.uk Review

For a while it looks like Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate, adapted from the novel The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, might recapture the beautiful uneasiness of such masterpieces as Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby. The horror of a Roman Polanski picture is not about spectacle and shock but a goose-pimply sense of evil lurking just outside the frame and hidden behind the faces of slightly unsettling characters. Here, a calm, almost sleepy Johnny Depp plays cynical, unscrupulous rare-book hunter Dean Corso, who's hired by demonologist Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) to authenticate a rare volume that, legend has it, was co-written by Lucifer himself. Dean leaves a Gothic looking New York (re-created in Europe by Polanski as a sinister city of shadows) for Portugal and Paris to compare Balkan's volume with the two copies known to be in existence and uncovers a mystery with unholy ramifications. He also finds himself at the centre of a conspiracy that involves Balkan, a widow who will stop at nothing to retrieve Balkan's book (Lena Olin, who gleefully bites and claws her way through the part), and a mysterious guardian "angel" (Polanski's wife, Emmanuelle Seigner) who shadows his every step. The Ninth Gate is full of rumbling menace and deliciously unsettling imagery, but Polanski's languorous direction and purposefully vague story render a film that's eerie without every becoming thrilling. It's perpetually on the verge of becoming interesting--right up to its obscure final image.-Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

On the DVD: Roman Polanski provides us with his first ever DVD commentary here, and makes his eye for detail and atmosphere very apparent in talking about design and his use of the camera. He also announces his love for the quality of DVD since he's always hated VHS. You also see him briefly amongst other interviewees in a two-minute featurette. There's also a trailer, 10 pages of production notes, and generous cast and crew information. One novelty is a gallery of The Nine Gates books' spot-the-difference satanic drawings. Best of all is an isolated track of Wojciech Kilar's excellent score, which is as well preserved by this transfer as the rich palette of earthy browns used by Polanski to paint the screen. --Paul Tonks

Average customer rating:

Boffo! a good one

Smart and original adaptation of a great book

Mmm...

a highly underrated thriller...

A dumb attempt at making a clever movie.

The Ninth Gate [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Johnny Depp , Frank Langella , Lena Olin , Emmanuelle Seigner , and Barbara Jefford
Director: Roman Polanski
Manufacturer: Lionsgate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000NQRR1Q
Release Date: 2007-05-22

Amazon.co.uk Review

Customer Reviews:

Boffo! a good one.......2008-02-10

This film is a study of the struggle of knowledge Vs power. The Johhny Depp character searches for knowledge not power and is thus rewarded over the other protaginists.Is Hell/the Devil as evil as man has himself become in his quest for power? The expression 'Hell on Earth' was obviously a factor in the writing of this movie. Polanski, as always, makes you think and question the motives of everyone involved. Those expecting to watch a Roman Polanski movie for just action should hire another directors movie. Powerful performances from Depp and Langella make this a film to watch.

Smart and original adaptation of a great book.......2007-09-13

I like Hollywood blockbusters and they are my usual poison but from time to time I simply MUST take a break and watch something that is NOT Hollywoodian, is not a sequel and doesn't involve too many car chases, superheroes, explosions, laser beams and idiotic dialogues. If you are looking for such a thing, you will not find much better that "The Ninth Gate".
To begin, one precision - this is the adaptation of a great novel, "Club Dumas" by the Spanish author Arturo Perez Reverte. The book is amazing but very, very hard to adapt to the screen - so Polanski had to make many changes. As the result, you can now watch a great movie and read a great book, in whatever order you like, without being disappointed by one of them.
This movie is about ancient books, people who collect them and people who live by trading them - and it is an amazing thing how passionate this world is. It is a great achievement of Polanski that he managed to keep a very honest pace of events, when placing the action mostly in librairies, bookshops etc. The gallery of persons shown in this movie is, typically for Polanski, made of characters mostly excentrical, frequently upsetting, sometimes very funny, but never, not even once, boring.
This is in large part one Johnny Depp show, and this is a great show. His character (Dean Corso, trader in ancient books) is in this movie slightly less antipatic than in the novel, but clearly he is not a totally nice guy. The way Johnny Depp acts in this movie confirms the impression I had for many years now - he is not only handsome, he is simply one of the greatest actors alive (and doesn't even need dreadlocks and gold teeth to prove it).
Emmanuelle Seigner plays a character that is totally ambigous (she is just The Girl - we never know what is her name) and I will not reveal anything more about her. She is beautiful, mysterious, tempting but distant and she certainly is leading the main hero somewhere. But we do not know where - until the last image.
Lena Olin (Liana Telfer) and Frank Langella (Boris Balkan) are other stars of the show - they are supporting characters and appear less on the screen, but they are both very important.
However the real "hero" of this movie could only be... a book. This book is called - what else - "The Nine Gates" and was written by a heretic alchimist around year 1515. The Inquisition then burned the author with all the copies which was possible to find - and the further we advance in the movie, the most we realise, that for once, for this one time, the Inquisition could very well have done the right thing! You desserve to discover the rest of the story by yourself.
This is an amazing movie. Reading some of the previews below I couldn't understand how you can be bored by it? Thanks to Polanski's unique touch there is more atmosphere in every scene of "Ninth Gate" that we actually can take in. There is a pair of extremely handsome and talented actors. There is the discreet but beautiful musical score by Wojciech Kilar. There is a deep and very very dangerous mystery. There is an almost sadistic, totally unsuspected twist towards the end. And there is finally, well hidden in the shadows, one writer, who really doesn't need an agent to take care of his bookwriting career.... See this movie ! It is worth it!

Mmm..........2006-11-16

Definitely a love-or-bored-by film. In terms of plot it draws from similar territory as Dennis Wheatley; there's a bit of real-life history involved, without beating viewers over the head with it. It doesn't beat viewers over the head at all, especially the ending -- people rewatching to see if they missed anything seems to be a common experience.

Corso's is a slow corruption, suggesting that evil prefers its recruits to be drawn in by fascination and imagination rather than by making showy gestures or dressing up. The film score's at times genuinely unsettling, and the deaths more macabre than in-your-face shocking. In terms of setting it has to take place before mobile phones caught on, with which items a lot of the menace and isolation would be drained out of the story.

It's one of the few movies I watch fairly regularly, and you should be able to get it at a reasonable price if you feel like giving it a go. Sit down with one or two people late in the evening for best viewing.

a highly underrated thriller..........2006-08-06

I believe that every movie has a color. The color of The Ninth Gate is dark brown. This color is well reflected in its mysterious mood and eerie atmosphere.

The story flourishes pace by pace. First we are drawn into the world of occult, ancient books and the Lucifer. Then comes Europe with mysterious strangers and murders. All happens in beautiful and exotic backdrops of Portugal and France.

Also, the acting, cinematography, music, and the general setting of the movie are all pretty good. Especially the first part is quite intriguing. From the beginning to the end, the movie grasps the mind and keeps the attention. Although it lasted 2 hours and 13 minutes, I wished that it would last longer. Roman Polanski did a great job indeed.

Most of the reviewers complain about its ending. I agree that the ending is too short, too quick and open-ended, but the vague ending is one of the things that makes it what it is...

A dumb attempt at making a clever movie........2005-10-03

I watched this movie last night and when it came to a sudden end I thought that surely I'd missed something or failed to understand an important concept. I looked up other peoples explanations on the internet to see what it was that I hadn't seen but it turns out that I'd understood it perfectly - this is just a terrible movie.

The plot line unfolds very slowly which is not necessarily a bad thing however the plot is so tedious and unoriginal that the movie seemed to drag on for hours. There are no suprises or twists along the way, the film just follows Johnny Depp as he wanders from place to place from one shallow character to another with the occasional dull murder or 'enigmatic' clue thrown in. The worst thing about this movie is it keeps promising more and then not delivering. I would have switched it off very quickly only I kept expecting some twist or revelation to be revealed which kept me watching. Aparently it's based on some historical fact about a satanic book which would have been quite interesting had any of the history actually been explained.

Johnny Depp is blank and nearly characterless in this movie, I felt no empathy, good or bad with him at all. However he comes out looking quite good compared to everyone else. The characters seem to have all been drawn from a comic book and then had the life drained out of them. There's no passion or anything believable in any of it.

I don't know what people saw in this movie that made them think the colours and sets and atmosphere were so good. I thought it was shot in a very average way with no imagination put into the use of cameras or lighting. Some of the sets were nice (especially that old house with the bell pull) but the camera movements were so mundane that they never took full advantage of them. This is the most washed out film-noir I've ever seen.

It appears during the film that the film maker is building up some intricate puzzle involving the different books however this turns out not to be true. The solution to the puzzle is never revealed because the film maker didn't even have the imagination to think up an interesting puzzle in the first place. There's also some dreadful gaping plotholes such as why does Boris Balkan bother to employ Johnny Depp when he just goes and steals the other books himself anyway ?

The ending isn't really all that mysterious, it's just a bit ambiguous. I actually quite like an enigmatic ending to a movie if it is used properly. Some of the most profound and philisophical movies have endings that leave you hanging however here it's just used to hide the end of the plot (probably because it's awful). There are a few possible theories as to what happens at the end but none of them are very interesting. There are no secrets hidden in this movie.

In conclusion I have to say that this is one of worst movies I've seen in a long time. I'm frustrated that I wasted two and a half hours watching it (although at least I've gained some pleasure from lampooning it !)

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