Film Review: The Ninth Gate (1999)

Film Review: The Ninth Gate (1999) | Ecency

(source: tmdb.org)

As the 3rd Millennium approached, the increasing millenniarist angst in the large segments of Western public was exploited by Hollywood through films dealing with the upcoming Apocalypse, Satan or the occult. The trend, however, wasn’t exactly new and it could be traced to Rosemary’s Baby, popular 1968 horror film directed by Roman Polanski, which turned into one of the most influential works of the genre. More than three decades later Polanski returned to the occult themes in his 1999 film The Ninth Gate.

The film is based on The Club Dumas, best-selling novel by Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte. The main character, played by Johnny Depp, is Dean Corso, amoral rare books dealer from New York City. Wealthy publisher Boris Balkan (played by Frank Langella) hires him to conduct a delicate fact-finding mission concerning valuable book in Balkan’s possession. It is Nine Gate of the Kingdom of Shadows, 17th Century text that contains instructions how to summon the Devil. Problem for Balkan is that there are apparently two more copies of the book, with only one of three books being authentic. Corso travels to Europe in order to track down other copies, compare it with Balkan’s book and determine authenticity. There he meets number of bizarre characters and gets in all kinds of trouble, while being followed by mysterious Girl (played by Emmanuelle Seigner) with hidden agenda and apparently supernatural abilities.

Although it is nominally a horror film, The Ninth Gate owes more to hard boiled detective novels of Dashiel Hammet than to the genre classics. Polanski, who would later describe his work as “fairy tale for adults”, has put more emphasis on mystery and less to cheap shocks, action and special effects. Made in Europe, The Ninth Gate has the pacing which is deliberately slower than in Hollywood, allowing audience not only to enjoy picturesque locations in France, Portugal and Spain, but also to draw its own conclusions of what is going on. With the strong emphasis on atmosphere and less concerned with the plot, Polanski delivers a very good film. The Ninth Gate benefits from great cinematography by Darius Khondji and truly impressive music score by Wojcieh Killar. The cast is also good, but Johnny Depp slightly disappoints with his surprisingly bland performance as the main character. Polanski has delivered a very good film, but The Ninth Gate wouldn’t fare that well when compared with his classic late 1960s works.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)