Frank Langella is a wealthy collector of rare books who hires expert investigator Johnny Depp to travel around France and make sure that his, Langella's, copy of a medieval book is authentic by comparing it to the two other copies known to exist.
The content of the book has some sort of supernatural significance. As Depp probes into the other copies he finds that all three are identical except for some discrepancies in the nine illustrations. Most of the illustrations carry the initials of the historical artist, but scattered among the existing pictures are slightly different illustrations signed by "LCR" -- or "Lucifer." It emerges that an examination of the Lucifer illustrations leads (somehow) to a ritual that will enable the successful puzzler to enter the Ninth Gate and become all powerful -- or something. Yes, the plot is odious, an imitation of the cheap garbage that now fills our screens. They have names like "Night of the Demons" and "I Dismember Mamma." What those cheapies don't have is style, and this one does.
There's not a car chase or an exploding fireball in the whole movie, and only one gun shot, which is a bloodless mercy killing. Now, that's a refreshing fact in itself. This is a thriller based on character, everyday incidents, and mooning over musty old books, and it works.
I was grateful too for the absence of supernatural special effects. Granted that Emmanuelle Seigner's strong-jawed face and hypnotic, feral, and almost horrifyingly beautiful cornflower blue eyes, sometimes takes on a demonic aspect, but that's it. All the events we witness could actually take place.
All the events except one. And that's the last one. Depp solves the final puzzle. Don't ask me how, but one of the illustrations has a naked babe riding some kind of monster, the babe resembles a 17th-century version of Seigner, and that opens up the Ninth Gate for Depp.
On the other hand, Polanski's work has always had one feature that has sometimes weakened the whole work, and that's a surprise, usually tragic ending, a final bitter twist. He was into tragic endings long before the Manson affair. "Rosemary's Baby" involved devils before the flesh-and-blood devils destroyed Polanski's family. Even a comedy like "The Fearless Vampire Killers" ended disappointingly in an unamusing way.
The last shot is of a figure we presume to be Depp walking through the portals of a blindingly back-lighted château. I couldn't figure it out.
What I enjoyed most was seeing the troglodytic Johnny Depp wandering around Paris in his extra-long overcoat and poking into musty old book stores with comic proprietors, or into private collections in the hands of oddly eccentric characters who have monstrous lesbian secretaries.
What I enjoyed second-most -- and this is a confession -- was watching the wild-eyed Frank Langella convincing himself that he has solved the puzzle of the illustrations, has become immortal and pain-free, then setting himself ablaze and finding out that he was WRONG. I don't usually laugh at full-body burns but I was expecting some computerized imaging to transform Langella into a Disneyoid manticore and, instead, here he is, running around yelling and brushing at the flames just as the rest of us mortals would! Langella is pretty good, by the way. Depp is required to be polite and introverted. (That is, he doesn't act like an American.) Seignier is given a lot of attention, but I never could figure out her role in the story.
Not bad overall. Perhaps better than that, if you catch it from the beginning, as I did not.
The content of the book has some sort of supernatural significance. As Depp probes into the other copies he finds that all three are identical except for some discrepancies in the nine illustrations. Most of the illustrations carry the initials of the historical artist, but scattered among the existing pictures are slightly different illustrations signed by "LCR" -- or "Lucifer." It emerges that an examination of the Lucifer illustrations leads (somehow) to a ritual that will enable the successful puzzler to enter the Ninth Gate and become all powerful -- or something. Yes, the plot is odious, an imitation of the cheap garbage that now fills our screens. They have names like "Night of the Demons" and "I Dismember Mamma." What those cheapies don't have is style, and this one does.
There's not a car chase or an exploding fireball in the whole movie, and only one gun shot, which is a bloodless mercy killing. Now, that's a refreshing fact in itself. This is a thriller based on character, everyday incidents, and mooning over musty old books, and it works.
I was grateful too for the absence of supernatural special effects. Granted that Emmanuelle Seigner's strong-jawed face and hypnotic, feral, and almost horrifyingly beautiful cornflower blue eyes, sometimes takes on a demonic aspect, but that's it. All the events we witness could actually take place.
All the events except one. And that's the last one. Depp solves the final puzzle. Don't ask me how, but one of the illustrations has a naked babe riding some kind of monster, the babe resembles a 17th-century version of Seigner, and that opens up the Ninth Gate for Depp.
On the other hand, Polanski's work has always had one feature that has sometimes weakened the whole work, and that's a surprise, usually tragic ending, a final bitter twist. He was into tragic endings long before the Manson affair. "Rosemary's Baby" involved devils before the flesh-and-blood devils destroyed Polanski's family. Even a comedy like "The Fearless Vampire Killers" ended disappointingly in an unamusing way.
The last shot is of a figure we presume to be Depp walking through the portals of a blindingly back-lighted château. I couldn't figure it out.
What I enjoyed most was seeing the troglodytic Johnny Depp wandering around Paris in his extra-long overcoat and poking into musty old book stores with comic proprietors, or into private collections in the hands of oddly eccentric characters who have monstrous lesbian secretaries.
What I enjoyed second-most -- and this is a confession -- was watching the wild-eyed Frank Langella convincing himself that he has solved the puzzle of the illustrations, has become immortal and pain-free, then setting himself ablaze and finding out that he was WRONG. I don't usually laugh at full-body burns but I was expecting some computerized imaging to transform Langella into a Disneyoid manticore and, instead, here he is, running around yelling and brushing at the flames just as the rest of us mortals would! Langella is pretty good, by the way. Depp is required to be polite and introverted. (That is, he doesn't act like an American.) Seignier is given a lot of attention, but I never could figure out her role in the story.
Not bad overall. Perhaps better than that, if you catch it from the beginning, as I did not.