The nine gates

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Movie
German title The nine gates
Original title The Ninth Gate
Country of production France , Spain
original language English , French
Publishing year 1999
length 128 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Roman Polanski
script John Brownjohn ,
Enrique Urbizu ,
Roman Polański
production Roman Polanski
music Wojciech Kilar
camera Darius Khondji
cut Hervé de Luze
occupation
synchronization

The Ninth Gate is a mystery - thriller by Roman Polanski from the year 1999 with Johnny Depp in the lead role. The film is based on the novel Der Club Dumas (El club Dumas) by the author Arturo Pérez-Reverte from 1993.

action

The antiquarian and "book detective" Dean Corso from New York has specialized in the procurement of very rare books. In order to get hold of the longed-for pieces, he doesn't shy away from cheating.

Corso is engaged by the eccentric publisher- millionaire and collector Boris Balkan for a special assignment. Balkan has a collection of valuable books that all have one thing in common: they are devil of content. He shows Corso his latest acquisition, the book "The nine gates into the realm of shadows", written in the 17th century by Aristide Torchia . Balkan acquired the book from collector Andrew Telfer, who sold him this treasure just one day before he committed suicide.

Only three copies of this work exist worldwide, all of them in private ownership. According to the Balkans, however, two of them are fakes and only one is authentic. Corso is supposed to check the other two copies in Portugal and France , compare them with his copy and find out which is the original.

The book is intended to describe a way to summon the devil and move into his kingdom in nine steps - provided you are able to decipher the hidden riddles of the book and correctly interpret their message. As a guide, the book contains nine woodcuts , which are supposed to contain the solution as a kind of picture puzzle. It is believed that the author took his inspiration for his work from the Delomelanicon , a script supposedly written by Lucifer himself. Torchia was arrested by the Inquisition and burned at the stake along with the rest of his books .

During his search, Corso repeatedly encounters a mysterious stranger who suddenly appears and then disappears again. He gets more and more into strange and dangerous situations, from which he is rescued by this mysterious woman. The images on the woodcuts also seem to show parallels to events he actually experienced.

Corso first travels to Toledo and first seeks the book restorers Pablo & Pedro Ceniza. The twin brothers had once sold the book to Andrew Telfer. From these he learns that although Telfer paid for the book, he was not particularly interested in it himself, but was persuaded to buy it by his wife Liana. He then travels to Sintra and Paris to check the other two copies. During his investigations, Corso keeps his client Balkan up to date by phone, who also seems to know at all times where he is.

Looking through the first copy at Victor Fargas in Portugal, Corso noticed that it had a few small differences from Balkan's edition. In each of the two books, three of the nine woodcuts are signed with the abbreviation LCF - these are said to have been made by Lucifer himself. The motifs in these woodcuts differ in details from those in the other copies. His conclusion: in each of the surviving books there are three “devilish” originals and six deviating variations. Therefore, Corso has to find all three books and compare the cuts to find out the real pictures for his client.

When Corso returns to Fargas, he finds that Fargas has drowned in his pond and that his book - after the woodcuts signed with LCF were torn out - was almost burned in the fireplace . Arrived in Paris, Corso hides Balkan's book in his hotel room and only takes photocopies with him to Baronesse Kessler, the owner of the third copy. She tells him that after the author Torchia was burned, a secret society called the "Order of the Silver Serpent" was founded to remember Torchia and to keep its secrets. But while Corso is comparing the woodcuts with one another, he is dejected from behind. When he comes to, the baroness is strangled and her office is on fire.

Corso returns to his hotel room, where he finds out that his copy has been stolen. He initially suspects the mysterious woman, but it turns out that Liana Telfer is behind it. Together with the woman he follows Telfer's car to her family's castle, where she leads the gathering of a sect of occult devil worshipers and recites from the book. Balkan bursts into the gathering, kills Liana Telfer with her own hands and flees with the book. Corso, who was prevented by the mysterious woman from intervening, follows him and finds him in an old castle in southern France. He previously found a picture of this castle on a postcard that was in Baroness Kessler's book and addressed to her from the Balkans.

Balkan believes that he found the solution in the pictures and thereby gained supernatural powers and immortality. After he has spread out the woodblock prints, he begins a ritual that is supposed to give him diabolical power. Corso, who wants to stop the Balkans, can only look on indifferently after he has broken half through a rotten ground. Balkan is so convinced of his newfound power that in his madness he doused himself with gasoline and set fire to himself. Corso sees that the magic isn't working and Balkan is slowly burning. He releases him from his torments by shooting him. Then he takes all of the LCF woodblock prints.

When Corso sits down in Balkan's car, the mysterious woman surprises him again. The two passionately love each other in front of the now burning castle. The next morning the stranger told him that Balkan's evocation of the devil did not work because the ninth graphic was a fake. It disappears again, but leaves him with a reference to the book restorers he has previously visited in Spain. When he gets there, he finds their shop abandoned, but comes across the last real page. On this one is also shown a woman who looks like the mysterious stranger. In the background the castle can be seen with a glaring light. Corso returns, and in the sunset the castle gate (the “ninth gate”) opens in a glaring light.

background

Château de Puivert, the place of the showdown
  • The English original title translates as "The ninth gate", not "The nine gates".
  • Before the film begins, the camera moves through a total of nine gates during the opening credits, but the ninth gate reveals a bright light.
  • The combination Balkan enters into the elevator control panel to get to the bookroom is 666 ; Balkan's number combination for opening the book room is 666, often referred to as the number of the devil. The year of publication of the book is given as 1666.
  • The taxi in which Dean Corso drives to the bookstore “Bernie's Rare Books” in New York, where he finds his friend dead, bears the number “6X67”. The X stands for the number 10 in Roman . If you pronounce this number, it becomes sixte (e) nsixtyseven - the year of death of the author Aristide Torchia .
  • The castle mentioned above ( Château de Puivert in southern France) appears several times in the film. At the beginning there is an illuminated picture of the castle in Balkan's library and in Baroness Kessler's copy of the “Nine Gates” Corso finds a postcard of the castle. Content: “Sorry Frieda, I saw it first. Boris ". The sender of the card is Boris Balkan. The address is "Frieda Kessler, 17, Quai d'Anjou, 75004 Paris" and is on the Île Saint-Louis .
  • The “mysterious woman” is played by Emmanuelle Seigner , the third wife of director Roman Polański .
  • In the film you see the “mysterious woman” several times with changing eye colors; her face also changes during sex with Corso, and she is seen floating through the air twice. The book she reads on the scene in the hotel lobby and that she asks Corso about is How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie .
  • Johnny Depp, along with other people, smokes cigarettes all the time in the film. The fact that the protagonist of the film in particular is portrayed as a heavy smoker led to protests in the USA and finally to the fact that the film was no longer broadcast on some US stations. In addition, it also seems nonsensical for the plot, since extremely rare and expensive books like the ones depicted in the film (once a value of 1 million US dollars for the book is mentioned) would only be handled with gloves and an experienced antiquarian like Corso in theirs Present - let alone directly above the book - would never smoke. However, the film here agrees with the novel in which Lucas Corso also smokes constantly while working with the valuable books. In the credits, a company called Film Media Consultants is also listed and its only task for the film is specified as “ Product Placement ”.
  • Both the twin brothers Pablo & Pedro Ceniza and the two craftsmen (who introduce themselves as Pepe Lopez and Ricardo Herrera) are all played by a single person: José López Rodero.
  • The owner of one copy, Victor Fargas, who lives in Portugal, has a striking similarity in name to the Austrian writer Viktor Farkas .
  • The film was shot in France, Spain and Portugal in the summer of 1998.
  • Production costs were estimated at around $ 38 million. The film grossed around $ 58 million worldwide.
  • The film premiered on August 25, 1999 in Spain and was released in Germany on December 16, 1999.

Differences to the novel

  • The correct ninth drawing does not appear in the book.
  • The storyline of the book, which deals with the three musketeers, is completely left out.

This results in further changes:

  • Boris Balkan appears here in the role that Vaio Borja has in the book. The original role of Balkans, owner and lover of Dumas' literary work, is completely eliminated.
  • The widow Telfer is after the “Nine Gates”, not after the unknown chapter of the three musketeers.
  • A sect of devil worshipers does not appear in the book in this form, but the meeting of the “Club Dumas” in the penultimate chapter of the novel is of course omitted.
  • Corso experiences parallels in the film between his reality and the “Nine Gates”, in the novel between his reality and the “three musketeers”.

synchronization

The German synchronization was in the Film & TV sync after a dialogue book and the dialogue director of Joachim Kunz village .

In the film, José López Rodero plays the roles of both Pablo and Pedro Ceniza; for the German version these were spoken by Hasso Zorn and Victor Deiß . The original voice actor for Johnny Depp was David Nathan . However, since he fell ill shortly before the recordings, Florian Halm took over his speaking role.

role actor German speaker
Dean Corso Johnny Depp Florian Halm
Boris Balkan Frank Langella Otto Mellies
The mysterious stranger Emmanuelle Seigner Andrea Solter
Liana Telfer Lena Olin Katharina Koschny
Baroness Kessler Barbara Jefford Bettina Schön
Bernie James Russo Torsten Michaelis
Pablo Ceniza José López Rodero Hasso Zorn
Pedro Ceniza Victor Deiß
Victor Fargas Jack Taylor Christian Rode
Witkin Allen Garfield Klaus Jepsen

Reviews

"An opulent, largely traditionally designed horror film that cheerfully celebrates the conventions of adventure and horror cinema without ironicizing them too much."

- Lexicon of international film

“Polanski is picking up on his mystical beginnings in the horror film genre: He tells of the bookseller Dean Corso, who is supposed to get a customer a primer to invoke Satan and in the process find himself caught between ominous powers. His film is quite amusing, atmospheric and entertaining. "

- Film (issue 12/1999)

“Elegantly ironic devilry, an intense film about silence, told suggestively like a captivating novel. Sensual, funny, mysterious. "

- Focus: film

“This has been a Polanski film again for a long time, which - apart from the rigid handling of almost priceless books - is consistently convincing: good actors, an intricate mystery story, good music - even if Kilar once again shows his brilliant ' Bram Stoker's Dracula 'Soundtrack copied - and a brilliant photograph. "

- Prism Online

“His new devil's work begins wonderfully ominously [...] With gentle irony and morbid images, Polanski knows how to combine his classics ' Rosemary's Baby ' and ' Chinatown '. But then comes the showdown with its infernal symbolism (flames!), Which only makes the viewer shrug. Because the supernatural is always invisible - and inexplicable. "

- cinema.de

“Anyone expecting a mainstream horror shocker will either be disappointed or pleasantly surprised. That was never Polanski's film style either, because he tells a lot more subtly and loves the ambiguity of stories. So he should find an artistically demanding, cinematic audience again and certainly still attract all those who want to be entertained intelligently and like to be told a classically exciting story without the special effects constantly popping around the corner. Because with Polanski they are also quiet, subtle, inconspicuous. "

- kino.de

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for the nine gates . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2009 (PDF; test number: 83 653 V / DVD / UMD).
  2. ↑ http://www.articleslash.net/Arts-and-Entertainment/Movies-TV/100872__Why-Do-Movie-Characters-Smoke.html
  3. ↑ http://smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/news/index.html
  4. ↑ Internet Movie Database : Filming Locations
  5. ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=ninethgate.htm
  6. ↑ http://www.imdb.de/title/tt0142688/releaseinfo
  7. ↑ a b The nine gates. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on March 17, 2020 .
  8. ↑ The nine gates. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  9. ↑ cinema.de
  10. ↑ kino.de