In New York, the money-driven dealer Dean Corso is a rare-books expert and partner of Bernie, who owns a bookstore. He is contacted by the renowned collector of books about the devil Boris Balkan, who has just acquired the rare The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows from the collector Andrew Telfer, to verify whether his book is authentic or a forgery. Balkan explains that the book was written by the writer Aristide Torchia, in 1666, with Lucifer and he was burned at the stake with his entire work. There are only three exemplars of The Nine Gates and in accordance with the legend, its nine engravings form a riddle to conjure the devil. The skeptical Corso accepts the assignment and has to fly to Sintra, Portugal, and Paris, France, to contact the owners Victor Fargas and Baroness Kessler and find the genuine exemplar for Balkan. Meanwhile, he asks Bernie to hide the rare book. Before traveling to Europe, the widow Liana Telfer wants to retrieve the book and has sex with Corso, but ...Written by
Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
When Balkan discovers Corso watching him in the Devil's Tower, and the camera turns back to face Corso, The Girl's face is in the clouds above watching down on the scene. See more »
Goofs
Real collectors and dealers wouldn't handle books worth $1,000,000 without gloves, and they surely wouldn't smoke or drink wine directly over them. Also, a book that old (not to mention the XVIII century Don Quixote volumes he takes at the beginning) would not resist the way Corso keeps chucking it in his bag or the fact everybody seems to be handling around. Furthermore, no dealer in his right mind would try to photocopy a four centuries old book by placing it in a commercial machine face down and pressing it as depicted in the movie: such actions would inflict severe damage to the printing and binding, drastically affecting its worth. Regardless those characters who see the book as a tool rather than a priceless collectible, Corso and the brothers Ceniza are experts in the matter, and would never treat such rare and priceless books that way. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Dean Corso:
It's an impressive collection. You have some very rare editions here. Are you sure you want to sell them all?
Old Man's Son:
They're of no use to father. Not anymore. Not since he's been this way. His library was his whole world. Now it's just a painful memory.
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I watched this brilliant movie two nights ago, and desperately want to see it again as soon as possible. I cannot for the life of me understand why so many people don't like this movie - personally, I'd have to say it's one of the best movies I've seen.
I wouldn't want to go too much in detail about it, suffice it to say I think it's good there are still movies made where use of one's brain is actually required when watching it, and everything is not over-explained. And finally, I'm astonished to see that so many didn't understand who Seigner's character actually was. To me, it was clear as day, _especially_ after seeing that last engraving. And I normally am not a very observant person;-)
Final words: Brilliant movie. Just brilliant.
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I watched this brilliant movie two nights ago, and desperately want to see it again as soon as possible. I cannot for the life of me understand why so many people don't like this movie - personally, I'd have to say it's one of the best movies I've seen.
I wouldn't want to go too much in detail about it, suffice it to say I think it's good there are still movies made where use of one's brain is actually required when watching it, and everything is not over-explained. And finally, I'm astonished to see that so many didn't understand who Seigner's character actually was. To me, it was clear as day, _especially_ after seeing that last engraving. And I normally am not a very observant person;-)
Final words: Brilliant movie. Just brilliant.