Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3548 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-10-06
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 128 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
For a while it looks like Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate, adapted from the novel The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, might recapture the beautiful uneasiness of such masterpieces as Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby. The horror of a Roman Polanski picture is not about spectacle and shock but a goose-pimply sense of evil lurking just outside the frame and hidden behind the faces of slightly unsettling characters. Here, a calm, almost sleepy Johnny Depp plays cynical, unscrupulous rare-book hunter Dean Corso, who's hired by demonologist Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) to authenticate a rare volume that, legend has it, was co-written by Lucifer himself. Dean leaves a Gothic looking New York (re-created in Europe by Polanski as a sinister city of shadows) for Portugal and Paris to compare Balkan's volume with the two copies known to be in existence and uncovers a mystery with unholy ramifications. He also finds himself at the centre of a conspiracy that involves Balkan, a widow who will stop at nothing to retrieve Balkan's book (Lena Olin, who gleefully bites and claws her way through the part), and a mysterious guardian "angel" (Polanski's wife, Emmanuelle Seigner) who shadows his every step. The Ninth Gate is full of rumbling menace and deliciously unsettling imagery, but Polanski's languorous direction and purposefully vague story render a film that's eerie without every becoming thrilling. It's perpetually on the verge of becoming interesting--right up to its obscure final image.-Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

On the DVD: Roman Polanski provides us with his first ever DVD commentary here, and makes his eye for detail and atmosphere very apparent in talking about design and his use of the camera. He also announces his love for the quality of DVD since he's always hated VHS. You also see him briefly amongst other interviewees in a two-minute featurette. There's also a trailer, 10 pages of production notes, and generous cast and crew information. One novelty is a gallery of The Nine Gates books' spot-the-difference satanic drawings. Best of all is an isolated track of Wojciech Kilar's excellent score, which is as well preserved by this transfer as the rich palette of earthy browns used by Polanski to paint the screen. --Paul Tonks

Special Features
2.35 Wide Screen
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Commentary With Director Roman Polanksi
Featurette
Theatrical Trailer
Cast And Crew Information
Production Notes
Isolated Music Score
Gallery Of Satanic Drawings

Synopsis
Based on a novel by Arturo Perez-Reverte (THE CLUB DUMAS) and coscripted by director Roman Polanski, THE NINTH GATE was Polanski's first feature after a long break following the release of 1995's DEATH AND THE MAIDEN--in between, there was an aborted project that faltered when designated star John Travolta opted out. Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) is a cynical rare books dealer hired by Boris Balkan (Frank Langella), a scholar specializing in books on Satanism, to recover the only two remaining copies (in addition to the one owned by Balkan) of THE NINE GATES OF THE KINGDOM OF SHADOWS, a 17th-century text with cryptic illustrations supposedly contributed by Lucifer himself. Corso's investigation takes him to Europe, where he is pursued by a strange girl (Emmanuelle Seigner) who seemes to assume the role of his guardian angel: Bizarre deaths inspired by the book's morbid illustrations befall all those who come into contact with the book--except himself. This occult mystery should satisfy fans of subtly creepy, stylish tales of the supernatural along the lines of Polanski's own ROSEMARY'S BABY.

Customer Reviews

Truly misunderstood masterpiece
I have never written a review before and doubt I will again, but there is so much misunderstanding about this masterpiece that I feel compelled to add my praise and insights.
This is the only film I have ever seen that rivals the complexity of a classic novel.
When first I saw it I was, like most people, rather confused - especially by the ending. It seemed a terrible anticlimax. However my respect for both Depp's choice of script and Polanski as a great film maker left me uneasy in my disappointment; I felt it was far more likely that it was my interpretation and understanding rather than their portrayal that was found wanting. I also had a gnawing sense of having missed something subtle but vitally important. I mulled over the film for a couple of days and slowly started to understand. I then went back and watched it again; the second viewing seemed to confirm my gradual revelation. I watched it again, pad and pen in hand taking notes, much as I did working through the various texts of my University literature days. It became clear.

The end is not vague, it is not an anti-climax at all; it is in fact a great achievement. Rarely in the best literature one encounters a sudden twist or change or revelation that forces one to reinterpret everything in the novel to that point; this is the best example of this that I have seen on film.

Not to give it away, but the film seems to portray a pursuit to obtain knowledge of the occult steps that lead to passage through the Ninth Gate and the immortality which that entails. When Depp's character finally acquires this knowledge, we expect to watch him fulfil the steps one by one until this passage to immortality is achieved. But in an apparent and disjointed anticlimax Depp is suddenly shown passing through the Ninth Gate. It is then that we must reinterpret the entire film in this light.

It is only on reflection that we understand that the film has not been a pursuit at all; we realise, simultaneously with Depp's character, that in his pursuit of the nine steps he has actually fulfilled them all bar one. The guardian demon that has accompanied him through his pursuit has actually been guiding him to fulfil the very requirements that he seeks knowledge of. When he obtains this knowledge he realises that his own journey has already taken him down the path to the entrance of the Ninth Gate itself; he is already there and done what is required to enter.

In this respect the film is one of those rare media experiences that becomes a true journey, a truer rendition of Heart of Darkness than is Apocalypse Now. And the subtlety and apparent ambiguity that many find detracting and confusing is actually integral and instrumental to this achievement.

Mmm...
Definitely a love-or-bored-by film. In terms of plot it draws from similar territory as Dennis Wheatley; there's a bit of real-life history involved, without beating viewers over the head with it. It doesn't beat viewers over the head at all, especially the ending -- people rewatching to see if they missed anything seems to be a common experience.

Corso's is a slow corruption, suggesting that evil prefers its recruits to be drawn in by fascination and imagination rather than by making showy gestures or dressing up. The film score's at times genuinely unsettling, and the deaths more macabre than in-your-face shocking. In terms of setting it has to take place before mobile phones caught on, with which items a lot of the menace and isolation would be drained out of the story.

It's one of the few movies I watch fairly regularly, and you should be able to get it at a reasonable price if you feel like giving it a go. Sit down with one or two people late in the evening for best viewing.

Ninth Gate - overview
In The Ninth Gate, perennial provocateur Roman Polanski throws in his contribution to the millennial apocalypse/Armageddon/hell-on-earth films that have recently been such a staple of the action/adventure genre. It is, actually, something of a stretch to call The Ninth Gate an action film (although it is somewhat of an adventure, if a largely predictable one) for, with the exception of a few short edge-of-your-seat fight scenes, the film is rather slow moving. This is not necessarily a criticism, for the film's meticulous and plodding pace is, perhaps, appropriate to its intellectual preoccupations.

The film's bookishness is, actually, one of the things I like best about it. Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) is an unscrupulous rare book dealer who, in the opening scenes, we first see swindling (what we presume is) an Alzheimer victim's family out of a priceless edition of Cervantes' Don Quixote. Throughout the film we are reminded (as he is told by others over and again) that Corso is a mercenary. Expert on demonology and arcane lore Boris Balkan (Frank Langella), has recently acquired a copy of the rarest of demonological codices, The Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows, and has some doubts about its authenticity. And so he hires Corso to track down the other two existing copies, compare them to his, and figure out which is the authentic text. It seems that the book, which might actually have been written in collaboration with the devil himself, if properly interpreted, gives instruction on how to invoke Satan, enter his realm, and become his all-powerful minion.

What follows, then, is a formulaic hunt for the two other texts throughout Europe, with the requisite secret society of Satan worshiping bad-guys hot on Corso's tail, and in which the secrets of the book's authorship, its authenticity, and its keys to hell are unraveled, leading to the inevitable meeting with the devil. Nonetheless, even with its rather too obvious narrative structure, I have to admit I kind of enjoyed The Ninth Gate. Most likely this film will really only appeal to bibliophiles, people who like spending long periods of time in libraries, poring over old, musty books. If this doesn't appeal to you, you might want to rent Arnie's End of Days, Keanu and Al's The Devil's Advocate, or even Patricia Arquette's Stigmata instead.

The other thing I like about The Ninth Gate is that it doesn't give up the devil. Unlike these other recent films (even the South Park movie is guilty, although it's by far the best of the lot), in which Satan is already with us or comes to earth to wreak apocalyptic havoc, in The Ninth Gate, the devil never appears. Of course, this saves us from the obligatory over-the-top, special effects laden showdown between the Prince of Lies and our intrepid hero. What this also does is shift the logic of these recent films, in which a select group of individuals must save all of mankind from Lucifer's dark designs. Here, supreme evil is something that must be sought out, or sought after, and it is an individual quest. The devil doesn't come to us, we must go to him; after all, the ninth gate itself isn't a portal for evil to enter our world, but a passageway through which we reach hell. Furthermore, contradicting Christian dogmatism, which would have us believe that stealing, lying, or masturbating are one-way tickets to the fiery pits, in The Ninth Gate reaching the presence of Satan is not an easy job.

In the unending search for the devil undertaken by many of the characters in the film, The Ninth Gate also revives the notion of the seductiveness of evil, a notion which has, for obvious reasons, been largely out of fashion since at least the end of World War II. In Polanski and screenwriter John Brownjohn's story (which is based on Arturo Perez-Reverte's novel, El Club Dumas), the lure of recondite knowledge, and the glamour of the beauty, wealth, power, and riches promised by congress with the devil are, seemingly, irresistible. The vehicle through which we witness the transformative charms of these seductions is Dean Corso. At the start of the film Corso is, as I remarked above, only and entirely a mercenary, serving his own self-interests. This never actually changes, although the objects of Corso's desires do. What begins as Boris Balkan's search for the authentic Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows and access to Satan's realm becomes Corso's own, after he unravels the text's many mysteries and witnesses the lengths to which it drives people to possess it. He himself becomes obsessed with finding, opening, and passing through the ninth gate.

To help him along the way, the succubus Girl (Emmanuel Seigner) pops up continually, helping Corso navigate perils and escape the bad guys' traps. The film goes to great lengths to try to keep us guessing about the "nature" of Girl, or about whose side she's playing on, and Corso is clearly befuddled by her presence until the very end. But this question is, perhaps, the least engaging and frankly lamest part of the story. The film makes it obvious (repeatedly) that the Girl bears a striking resemblance to the demoness riding a dragon in one of the illustrations in the diabolical "Nine Gates," and one has to work quite hard to believe that Corso, after spending days examining the book and its pictures, would never remark on this similarity himself.

For all its shortcomings, there is a sort of guilty pleasure (at least for me) in watching The Ninth Gate — perhaps this is a residue of my own adolescent boy fascinations with fantasy, Satanism, arcane lore, and the like, but, really, what early-teenaged boy isn't at one time or another so fascinated? Johnny Depp, as always, is excellent. The plasticity and expressiveness of his face are a constant joy to watch, as he has proven over and over. Frank Langella is Frank Langella, but, as Polanski remarks in his production notes, as the character Boris Balkan spends much of the film filtered through a telephone, he needed an actor with an impressive voice, and Frank does have a nice set of pipes.

Although nowhere near the great self-indulgence of a Satan-loving schlock-fest like The Evil Dead, or the studied malevolence of The Exorcist or Damien: The Omen, under Roman Polanski's direction, The Ninth Gate aspires — in its bookishness, its trafficking in the seductions of forbidden knowledge, its secret-society stylings — to include itself in the pretentious "ars diavoli" with which the film is so preoccupied.