Halloween Diary - The Ninth Gate (4.5/5)

 

I have written three times about this film in the past, mostly in October. This is a favorite of mine for the month of October. Around 2000, this was on cable a lot. I used to have it on quite a bit. For me, it is about the adventure, not necessarily the destination, though I imagine fans watching it in a theater were hoping, as Roger Ebert was, for insight into what lies behind the ninth gate. Maybe there is curiosity for what hell or Lucifer looks like since Polanski's movie talks so much about both. The close we get is Emmanuelle Seigner, riding Depp outside Château de Puivert (a castle in Aude, France), as her face seems to morph into different faces while her eyes fluctuate in color and fire burns from the windows. Langella thought he had achieved something metaphysical, something spiritual, but he was missing a certain authentic page.

So the journey to opening the ninth gate seems to be Depp's instead of Langella's. Seigner tells him as much. She's clearly some sort of demon that works for Lucifer and "encourages" Depp to keep his course and continue. Depp even seems to be put on the course out of some destiny. Seigner seems to know that he will have an obsession to finish what he was paid to do and more...not only study all three Torchia books and authenticate them but to follow the clues of all three and see where those clues lead. Langella, at first, is Depp's client...the money initiating Depp to go on a trip and get Langella answers. But after his life threatened by Olin and her lover (used to get her the book or beat up Depp when he gets in the way) and the mysteries of the books setting up an intense curiosity that seems to urge him on beyond just working for Langella, Depp was motivated by a drive beyond cold, hard cash. That journey is what always captivates me, as does the Euro-trip and dangers that seem to be too close to comfort. While the destination remains a mystery that only Depp will be able to experience -- possibly the point of why we don't get to see what he does, with the closing credits instead interfering -- I always have a lot of fun following Depp and the enigmatic Seigner along the way.