The Ninth Gate

"To travel in silence, by a long and circuitous route. To brave the arrows of misfortune and fear neither noose nor fire. To play the greatest of all games and win, foregoing no expense, is to mock the vicissitudes of Fate and gain at last *the key that will unlock the Ninth Gate." * A genuine modern masterpiece. Whatever just happened, it was sheer brilliance (except Johnny Depp smoking all over rare books like what are you doing). The Ninth Gate is religious mystery film directed by Roman Polanski and starring Johnny Depp as Dean Corso, a crooked rare book dealer that goes on a journey of faith, mystery and, at the end, to salvation. The story revolves around Corso being sent to Europe by private book collector Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) to examine and authenticate the other two copies of Balkan's rare book, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, a book said to be able to summon Satan. Corso is reluctant to go but is offered a large sum by Balkan and, being the greedy person he is, decides to go. While in Europe he encounters a mysterious woman who seems to follow him everywhere he goes. She is reveals to him that she will protect him at all costs, linking to the ending and true meaning of this film. However, Corso still seems to be in danger when in possession of this book, leading to his suspicions of its true power. Corso discovers that in each copy of the Nine Gates, the engravings are marked with different initials, some signed by Lucifer himself. Then, when Balkan seems to become increasingly obsessed with wanting to come into possession of these other copies, sacrificing even the lives of their owners, Corso begins to become suspicious of him. The ending of this film is genuinely sublime, with Corso walking through the Ninth Gate at the castle, revealing that he was the one being summoned all along. Throughout the film Corso had completed each engraving or 'gate' in the book, climaxing in intercourse with the woman, revealing why she was protecting him the whole time. Overall, The Ninth Gate is one of the most interesting and underrated films of all time that is definitely going to linger in my memory for longer than I thought.