Review of The Ninth Gate (1999) by Kat S — 03 Nov 2009

When I first saw this one, I had great expectances (it recommends itself as a horror-mystery movie made by Polanski and Depp. WOW! This must be God! HELL! It was Belzebuth on a motorcycle!). I really hated the girl on the motorcycle (meaning Irene, the Faithfull-Delon movie is somehow enjoyable), who kept appearing in the most inappropriate moments, saving the day in a quite annoying "Deus (or should I say Belzebuth) ex machina" manner.

She was the guardian angel... oups! She was the Devil! So, the Devil is among us. However, this "The Devil comes on a motorcycle" approach continued to annoy me, because if they got rid of that damn motorcycle this would have been a great movie for me.

Before seeing the movie for the second time, I run into tis text: "Johnny Depp stated: you begin to like Corso towards the end, though he has turned out to be a cruel, cold man, willing to do anything to meet his goal.

Throughout the book and movie, the reader or the viewer is largely ignorant of Corso's role and it seems Corso himself is no different. The reader and the character are too focused on everyone else, each of which seems more important than Corso.

.. but in the end, only he will go through the gate... and the only person in the story who prepared and helped him for this was the mysterious Irene. The woodcuts in The Nine Gates made by Lucifer himself are signed LCF? Corso's first name (in the book) is Lucas Corso? Initials: LC? F?" If this would be so, it means that the motorcycle was ment to turn our attention to the girl? That's an idea.

.. And what about that book he talks about? "The Dumas Club", written by Arturo Pérez-Reverte - would be an interesting reading, I suppose.