Lots of foreplay but no climax (The Ninth Gate (DVD))

Member Name: Mauri

Product:	The Ninth Gate (DVD)
Date:	02/11/01 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice atmosphere

Disadvantages: Poor ending

I must state at the very start that Roman Polanski has always been one of my favourite directors. He has over the years, made some acknowledged classics (Repulsion-1965, Rosemary's Baby-1968, Chinatown1974) and a few under rated but nonetheless outstanding films (The Fearless Vampire Killers 1967, Tess 1979, Frantic-1988 and the strange Bitter Moon-1992). I was looking forward to this film but I'm afraid to say ultimately I was very disappointed.

*THE CAST*

Dean Corso played by Johnny Depp
Boris Balkan played by Frank Langella
Liana Telfer played by Lena Olin
The Girl played by Emmanuelle Seigner
Baroness Kessler played by Barbara Jefford
Victor Fargas played by Jack Taylor
Pablo Ceniza & Pedro Ceniza played by José López Rodero
Bernie played by James Russo

Director: Roman Polanski

*THE STORY*

This is a film adaptation of the novel 'The Club Dumas' by Arturo Perez-Reverte. Johnny Depp plays Dean Corso a sleazy antique book dealer or 'Cultural Detective'. Corso is not a clear cut hero, we see him at the outset of the film conning some people into selling him some very rare copies of Don Quixote at a knock down price. He is shabbily dressed in crumpled brown/grey suits, constantly smokes and seems to live on alcohol and junk food. At this point I was reminded of Jake Gittes the 'hero' of 'Chinatown' or of a Bogart character from one of the classic Film Noir detective films of the 40's. So far so good!

Corso is contacted by a mysterious antique book collector, Boris Balkan. He agrees to meet Balkan and discuss a business proposal. Corso goes to see Balkan (at his apartment on floor 666) and shows him a rare copy of a 17th century occult book called 'The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows'. The unfortunate author of this book was burnt at the stake for havingapparently collaborated with the devil in the writing it. Th
e book itself is supposed to have great power. If certain passages are read in the correct order then the reader is supposed to be able to open the nine 'gates' that lead to the devil.

Three copies of the book exist, one is owned by Balkan (who recently bought the book from another book collector Telfer, just before he committed suicide) another is found in Spain and one in France. Balkan wants to make sure that his copy is not a forgery and hires Corso to visit the other owners and examine their copies to check for any signs of forgery. He hands Corso his copy and effectively hands him a blank cheque to complete his task. Thus begins a supernatural detective story that bears many similarities to 'Angel Heart'. Again so far so good!

Gradually as his investigation continues Corso realises that Balkan must have 'stolen' the book from Telfer and on meeting Telfer's widow Liana, he quickly realises that she wants the book back at any cost.
Corsoleaves the book with a friend for safe keeping but soon after his friend turns up dead, luckily for Croso the book is still safe. Corso also notices that a mysterious girl is following him.

After having exhausted his research in the US he travels to Europe to track down the remaining copies. Firstly he travels to Madrid to meet the Ceniza twins, the specialist book restorers and collector who sold the copy he holds to Telfer. They tell him that the copy is an original but that it was not Telfer that wanted to buy the book but to his wife Liana. Soon after this Corso is nearly killed by a freak accident. He next goes to see Victor Fargas the owner of the second copy. On the way he meets the girl again and they teams up. At this point Corso suspects that she has been sent by Balkan to keep his investment safe. They meet Fargas and examine his copy. Corso now realises that there are differences between the books but not in the text, only in some of the nine (a clue here!
) engravings that illustrate the work. Some of the engraving are signed LCF (Lucifer) and it becomes clear that, the power of the book lies not in the text but the pictures.

More deaths follow and Corso's life again becomes threatened by some heavies hired by Liana Telfer. The girl with Corso, who refuses to reveal any details about herself, proves to be very adept at protecting him form these dangers. Eventually Corso, discovers the existence of a secret society of witches that meet every year to use the book summon the devil. The coven goes after Corso to obtain the copy of the book he holds. Eventually they manage to steal it from him. Thus the scene is set for the big finale, the confrontation between the forces of good and evil… Well this is my problem with the film the ending…I won't go in to too much detail but I will say that at the end I didn't have a clue what really happened or why I had spent over two hours watching this film.

*THE FILM*

I really enjoyed this film for the first hour and a half. The scene and atmosphere was expertly set. The viewer is unclear about what events are unfolding. Right from the start there is a very sinister feel to the movie. The locations are always dimly lit and the characters all have implied darker sides. Corso is obviously the 'hero' but is he in the service of evil? Balkan and Liana are shady characters right from the beginning, but the girl is more difficult to judge, she is protecting Corso but is she working for Balkan, or some higher power? Who is killing off all the people that Corso meets during his investigations? Does Corso himself play a bigger part in the mystery than even he himself realises?

You can't avoid seeing parallels with 'Chinatown' and 'Angel Heart' in both the atmosphere created and the characters involved. Polanski manages to unfold the mystery gradually keeping the viewer interested and constantly unsure abo
ut where the thread of the story is leading. Depp is very good in the role of Corso. He manages to convey the sleaziness of the Corso so well that you can almost smell the tobacco-stained clothes he is wearing.

SO WHAT GOES WRONG?

In this film Polanski is asking the question, does evil actually exist or is our need to believe in good and therefore evil makes it real? In the end he doesn't give us a clear answer he does leave hints which are supposed to allow the audience to make up their own minds. It is in the technical execution of this that I think he and thus the film fails.

The film begins to lose its way when we see the satanic ceremony with all the hooded satanic worshipers in attendance. This is supposed to be a pivotal moment in the narrative but it degenerates into a Dennis Wheatley/Hammer type movie. Cliché after cliché is introduced, the final devil summoning scene is laughable (I actually did laugh out loud) and the special effects were also surprisingly unconvincing.

In the end I can only assume Polanski decided to make a non-committal ending to keep the mystery of the story alive up to the end. He completely fails to do this. At the end I realised what was supposed to happen but I was asking myself what was the point. I found the performances of the actors apart from Depp and Langella, very ordinary and even these two at the end revert to the 'Hammer House of Horror' school of acting.

It is a great pity that Polanski couldn't manage to finish off what started as a very good occult mystery thriller.

Summary: