The Ninth Gate
New York’s money-driven dealer Dean Corso, a rare-books specialist and partner to Bernie who also owns a bookstore, is Dean Corso. Boris Balkan is an acclaimed collector of books on the devil. He contacts him to confirm whether the book he has purchased, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, is genuine or fake. Balkan says that Aristide Torchia wrote the book in 1666 with Lucifer. He was then burned to the ground with all his work. Only three examples of The Nine Gates exist. According to legend, the nine engravings are a riddle that will conjure up the devil. Corso, who is skeptical, accepts the task and travels to Sintra (Portugal) and Paris (France) to meet Victor Fargas, Baroness Kessler, and to find the authentic exemplar for Balkan. He asks Bernie for help hiding the book. Liana Telfer, a widow, wants the book back before she travels to Europe. She has sex in the meantime with Corso but does not take her offer. Corso finds his friend dead in the exact same spot as an engraving when he returns to Bernie’s bookshop. Corso goes to Toledo in Spain to learn more about The Nine Gates and meet his twin brother Ceniza. Liana, her bodyguard and a mysterious girl with superhuman powers follow Corso on his European journey. The owners of The Nine Gates’ other two exemplars are also murdered. Corso is obsessed by the book, and eventually reveals the truth. –Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Director: Roman Polanski
Actors: Barbara Jefford, Emmanuelle Seigner, Frank Langella, Jack Taylor, Johnny Depp, José López Rodero, Lena Olin
