The Ninth Gate is an intense, exciting & well-acted thriller with great direction and cinematography. The story concerns a man named Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) who collects books relating to Satan. He hires Dean Corso (Johnny Depp in another great performance), a rare book dealer, to track down copies of the book "Nine Gates of The Shadow Kingdom". 3 are known to exist: Balkan's and 2 others owned by collectors in Europe. He wants Corso to seek them out and compare them to see which, if any, are authentic. The book is said to have the power to conjure Satan. As Corso goes about his mission, the movie engrosses you with its suspenseful and spooky story and the beautiful European scenery. Lena Olin plays a woman whose husband owned a copy of the book, which he sold to Balkan before commiting suicide in the film's opening scene. She is trying desperately to get it back. Emmanuelle Seigner, director Roman Polanski's striking wife, appears from time to time to aid Corso and saves his life several times.
I don't want to give too much away, but I was truly stunned reading comments on this film by how few people really understood it. I thought it was easy to follow and by the end, we knew, at least I did, what was going on and what the Seigner character's purpose in the film was. The final scene has been roundly criticized on here. I thought it was a great ending. I had never seen a Polanski film before, but now I plan to see some of his others, like Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown which I've never seen but heard alot about.
I don't want to give too much away, but I was truly stunned reading comments on this film by how few people really understood it. I thought it was easy to follow and by the end, we knew, at least I did, what was going on and what the Seigner character's purpose in the film was. The final scene has been roundly criticized on here. I thought it was a great ending. I had never seen a Polanski film before, but now I plan to see some of his others, like Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown which I've never seen but heard alot about.