The Ninth Gate

Dean Corso, a New York City rare book dealer, is hired by wealthy collector Boris Balkan. Balkan has acquired a copy of The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, a book by 17th-century author Aristide de Torchia said to be able to summon the Devil. Torchia is alleged to have written the book in collaboration with the Devil, and only three copies survived when he and his works were burned for heresy. Balkan believes only one of the three is authentic. He hires Corso to travel to Europe to inspect the other two copies to determine which one it is. During his travels, Corso comes into contact with a mysterious woman ("The Girl") who appears to be following him. Corso interviews Liana Telfer, the widow of Andrew Telfer who sold Balkan The Nine Gates shortly before killing himself. Telfer later seduces Corso, hoping he will sell the book to her. After they have sex, and he refuses to sell, she attacks him, and knocks him unconscious. The next day, Corso goes to a bookseller to whom he had entrusted the book and finds him hanged in his store, in a way depicted in one of the engravings in The Nine Gates. Corso retrieves the book and travels to Toledo, Spain, to speak to the Ceniza Brothers, book restorers who owned Balkan's copy before the Telfers. The two show him that, of the book's nine engravings, only six are signed "AT"; the other three are signed "LCF" for Lucifer. Corso travels to Sintra, Portugal, and meets with Victor Fargas, who owns a copy of The Nine Gates. Corso finds that three different engravings in his copy are signed "LCF", and the engravings signed this way have subtle differences from those signed "AT". Corso relays his findings to Balkan and Balkan orders him to acquire Fargas's copy. The next day the Girl takes Corso to see Fargas, but they find that he has been drowned; Corso retrieves Fargas's burnt copy from the fireplace and finds that the three "LCF" engravings had been torn out. Corso goes to Paris, France, to investigate the third copy owned by Baroness Kessler. Wary of Corso and knowing he is employed by Balkan, she refuses him. Corso is attacked while walking outside only to be saved by the Girl, who exhibits seemingly supernatural powers. Corso hides Balkan's book in his hotel room and tells Kessler about the "LCF" engravings, proposing that each copy has three that together make an authentic set of nine. Intrigued, Kessler allows Corso to look at her copy. Corso is attacked while studying it in her library, and the Baroness is strangled to death and the library set on fire. Corso returns to his hotel and discovers Balkan's copy is missing, probably stolen by Liana. The Girl and Corso track Liana to her family's ancestral manor where a Satanic cult is conducting a rite using Balkan's book. Balkan interrupts the ceremony, takes his copy back, and strangles Liana to death as the rest of the members run away in fear. Corso abandons the Girl, presuming she was working for Balkan, and pursues Balkan but loses him when his car breaks down. Corso finds a clue in Kessler's belongings that directs him to a remote castle, where Balkan is preparing to summon the Devil using the nine "LCF" engravings. He subdues Corso and forces him to watch as he performs the rite; it apparently works and grants Balkan power and immunity to harm, and he immolates himself to demonstrate and attempt to convince a still skeptical Corso. However, the rite seemingly fails and Balkan begins to scream in pain from the flames engulfing his body. Corso eventually frees himself, retrieves the engravings and shoots Balkan to end his torment. Sitting in Balkan's car, Corso is startled by the Girl, and she kisses him. The two are then shown having passionate sex on the ground while backlit by the burning castle. The Girl's face and eyes seem to change as she writhes astride Corso in a state of crazed bliss. After, as the two are traveling, the Girl explains Balkan's rite did not work because the ninth engraving was forged. When they stop for gasoline she vanishes, but leaves Corso a note sending him to the Ceniza brothers. At their shop, Corso finds they have vanished and the shop is being cleaned out. As workmen remove a large bookcase, a dust-covered paper floats down from the top. This is the authentic engraving, which depicts a woman who resembles the Girl riding atop a dragon-like beast in front of the castle at dawn. Corso, now with all nine authentic engravings in his possession, returns to the castle. The gates open on their own and emit a powerful bright light as Corso walks through, taking the journey through the Ninth Gate. ==Cast==

, Ferrières-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, France Roman Polanski read the screenplay by Enrique Urbizu, an adaptation of the Spanish novel El Club Dumas (The Club Dumas, 1993), by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. Impressed with the script, Polanski read the novel, liking it because he "saw so many elements that seemed good for a movie. It was suspenseful, funny, and there were a great number of secondary characters that are tremendously cinematic". Pérez-Reverte's novel, El Club Dumas features intertwined plots, so Polanski wrote his own adaptation with his usual partner, John Brownjohn (Tess, Pirates and Bitter Moon). They deleted the novel's literary references and a sub-plot about Dean Corso's investigation of an original manuscript of a chapter of The Three Musketeers, and concentrated upon Corso's pursuing the authentic copy of The Nine Gates. Yet he enjoyed the genre. "There [are] a great number of clichés of this type in The Ninth Gate, which I tried to turn around a bit. You can make them appear serious on the surface, but you cannot help but laugh at them." In reading El Club Dumas, Polanski pictured Johnny Depp as "Dean Corso", who joined the production as early as 1997, when he met Polanski at the Cannes Film Festival, while promoting The Brave. Initially, he did not think Depp right as "Corso", because the character was forty years old (Depp at the time was only 34). He considered an older actor, but Depp persisted; he wanted to work with Roman Polanski. The film press reported, around the time of the North American release of The Ninth Gate, creative friction between Depp and Polanski. Depp said, "It's the director's job to push, to provoke things out of an actor". ==Soundtrack==

The musical score for The Ninth Gate was composed by Wojciech Kilar, who previously collaborated with Polanski on Death and the Maiden (1994). The film's main theme is loosely based upon Havanaise, for violin and orchestra, by Camille Saint-Saëns; some of the score has a vocalization (specifically, a melodic aria) by Korean soprano Sumi Jo. A soundtrack album was released on 16 November 1999 via Silva Screen label. == Release and reception ==

Box office The premiere screening of The Ninth Gate was in San Sebastián, Spain, on 25 August 1999; in North America, it appeared in 1,586 cinemas during the 10 March 2000 weekend, earning a gross income of $6.6 million, and $18.6 million in total. Worldwide, it earned $58.4 million against a $38 million production budget. On May 22, 2007, an extended version was released with a runtime of 2 hours and 13 minutes. Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 44% based on reviews from 97 critics. The consensus reads, "Even though the film is stylish and atmospheric, critics say The Ninth Gate meanders aimlessly and is often ludicrous. And despite the advertising, there's hardly any chills." On Metacritic it has a score of 44 out of 100 based on reviews from 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "D−" on scale of A to F. Roger Ebert said the ending was lackluster: "while at the end, I didn't yearn for spectacular special effects, I did wish for spectacular information — something awesome, not just a fade-to-white". In his review for The New York Times, Elvis Mitchell said the movie was "about as scary as a sock-puppet re-enactment of The Blair Witch Project, and not nearly as funny". Entertainment Weekly rated the film "D+", and Lisa Schwarzbaum said it had an "aroma of middle-brow, art-house Euro-rot, a whiff of decay and hauteur in a film not even a star as foxed, and foxy, as Johnny Depp, himself, could save". In the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan said the film was "too laid-back, and unconcerned about the pacing of its story to be satisfying", because "while a thriller that's not high-powered, is an intriguing concept, in reality it can hold our attention for only so long". In the Village Voice, J. Hoberman said the film was "barely releasable hokum, stuffed with cheesy blah-blah". European reviews were generally more attentive and praised the film's pace and irony. In Sight and Sound magazine, Phillip Strick said it was "not particularly liked at first outing — partly because Johnny Depp, in fake grey temples, personifies the odious Corso of the book a little too accurately — the film is intricately well-made, deserves a second chance, despite its disintegrations, and, in time, will undoubtedly acquire its own coven of heretical fans". In Time magazine, Richard Corliss said that The Ninth Gate was Polanski's most accessible effort "since fleeing the U.S. soon after Chinatown". In the San Francisco Chronicle, Bob Graham said that "Depp is the best reason to see Polanski's satanic thriller" and "Polanski's sly sense of film-noir conventions pokes fun at the genre, while, at the same time, honoring it". After the release of The Ninth Gate, Artisan sued Polanski for taking more than $1 million from the budget, refunds of France's value-added tax that he did not give to the completion bond company guaranteeing Artisan Entertainment a completed film. ==References==