Review of The Ninth Gate (1999) by Filipeneto — 04 Mar 2018

This film tells the story of Dean Corso, an expert on trade of rare books, which engages in a macabre story while trying to ascertain the authenticity of a rare book for a wealthy client. Directed by Roman Polanski, which also provides the script with John Brownjohn and Enrique Urbizu, this movie is starring Johnny Depp, Frank Langella and Lena Olin.

This is one of the least known films of Depp's career, an actor who is fashionable and has many admirers. Perhaps the reason why this happens is the uncomfortable atmosphere of mystery surrounding the movie until, finally, "swallows" the main actor. The story is deeply mysterious: a book written by the Devil, pictures that can be used to invoke it, and a search across Europe, where every step you can find a strange place. Indeed, it was not by chance that Polanski chose Sintra as one of the scenarios for the story. The small Portuguese village is famous for the mysterious and enigmatic environment, as well as the legends it has. The choice of an ancient Cathar castle for the grand finale is also not devoid of sense, for all those who have studied history and know what were the Cathars.

But the film is not only based on demonic mysteries, rare books and enigmatic places. The actors greatly contributed to the quality of the final work, with Depp to give evidence of tremendous versatility and talent, and Langella wisely using his grim appearance and incredibly dense voice to build a very calm character, but extremely scary and dark. Lena Olin is excellent, and although its no longer a young girl, she managed to build a great and sexually powerful character. But one of the strangest and most controversial characters is played by Emmanuelle Seigner, the wife of Roman Polanski. Its an attractive girl whose name is never revealed, but it will follow throughout the film, never showing clearly what it is, or who she is, despite giving various clues and proofs of supernatural powers and to know more about the events than it really wants to reveal. Guess who she is...

The sets and shooting locations were chosen carefully, to give the film a dark and Gothic look. The photograph, something misty and dark, will also give their contribution to this environment, as well as the soundtrack, which is a great quality. It's a movie to see and review, although only people with some insight will be able to understand the film in its entirety.