The Ninth Gate (1999)

[choochoo_the_wonder_slut 740]

I doubt they would ever do this movie but everytime I watch it I leave thinking "Wtf did I just watch?".

 

-Who is Green Eyes?

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-Why is the repeating musical theme comedic in tone?

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-If Frank Langella was willing to kill everyone for the other books why even send Corso at all?

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-How did the black albino not notice a red Ferrari tailing him for hours on an empty highway?

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-Why does Green Eyes use kung fu?

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-Who killed Bernie and hung him up like the engraving?

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-Are the chefs seen in the mansion kitchen part of some Satanic orgy catering service?

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-Who could maintain an erection while banging an obvious demon outside of a burning castle?

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-Did none of the cult members notice Green Eyes FLYING down to Corso in the mansion?

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-Why doesn't the manly French secretary tell the police Corso murdered her boss?

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-Did God try to kill Corso with the falling scaffolding? Can't God just kill whoever he wants whenever?

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-Wouldn't Corso ask "wtf is wrong with your weird eyes?" at some point?

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-Are the book store twins one actor in horrible split screen?? Why??

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-Why would Corso leave Green Eyes alone in the car at the last gas station after her other vanishing acts?

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-Why does Corso run down steps to escape the albino and then walk up the next steps about ten feet away to the same street the albino was on?

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-Green Eyes stops Corso from saving Lena Olin from Frank Langella because "he just committed a murder in public. Now you're off the hook for the other murders." WHO THE FUCK IS GOING TO CALL THE POLICE FROM AN ELITE BILLIONAIRE SATANIC SEX ORGY??? And if Green Eyes is helping Corso go through the Ninth Gate why the fuck would she care about his police entanglements? Do arrest warrants carry over to Hell??

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-Wtf happens at the end????

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T5mhtHf8T4

[imhatch 271]

you must have just watched this movie because i've seen it multiple times and still have no fucking clue what happens to the point that i couldn't even think of what questions to ask aside from "why."

[choochoo_the_wonder_slut 740]

Ha! I did watch it last night, but I've seen it a few times before. I have Verizon cable and it's on demand on Showtime or Cinemax this month.

[seanotron 2307]

I love that the trailer makes a point of saying it made '$20 million at the box office'. They may as well have said, 'George Wendt says Ninth Gate is a winner!'. 'Peter Scolari says you must see this movie!'

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

I think my favorite part about this movie is that Corso finds these extraordinarily rare, valuable, and/or magical books and handles them with all the delicacy of a college freshmen with a Biology 101 textbook. He drinks, eats, and smokes while reading it and turns the pages with all the care he might take with a phone book. This guy is a rare book collector? I mean, I know he's a douchey con man, but I still found it hilarious.

[choochoo_the_wonder_slut 740]

I think my favorite part about this movie is that Corso finds these extraordinarily rare, valuable, and/or magical books and handles them with all the delicacy of a college freshmen with a Biology 101 textbook. He drinks, eats, and smokes while reading it and turns the pages with all the care he might take with a phone book. This guy is a rare book collector? I mean, I know he's a douchey con man, but I still found it hilarious.

 

Great point! Like how the old man who runs the book shop with his twin brother nonchalantly lets a cigarette ash fall onto the cover of an extremely rare 350 year old book and then just wipes it off with his dirty old man hand. I know nerds who treat their 10 year old comic books like Indiana Jones handling The Holy Grail.

[Marshall_Hampton 5]

I actually really like this movie. I think it's a really good movie, but I can understand people having so many questions about it. Even though I enjoy this movie I do think listening to an episode on it would be entertaining.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

I love that the trailer makes a point of saying it made '$20 million at the box office'. They may as well have said, 'George Wendt says Ninth Gate is a winner!'. 'Peter Scolari says you must see this movie!'

I remember seeing that pop up on VHS boxes at weird times when I'd be at the video store, like it wouldn't be on the boxes of the movies that SHOULD be bragging. You wouldn't see the box office numbers on "Terminator 2", but "1492: Conquest of Paradise" would proudly proclaim "Over 7 million dollars made at the box office!".

[choochoo_the_wonder_slut 740]

I actually really like this movie. I think it's a really good movie, but I can understand people having so many questions about it. Even though I enjoy this movie I do think listening to an episode on it would be entertaining.

 

I am in the same boat. I enjoy this movie enough that I've watched it at least 4 times, but man I would love to hear HDTGM try to figure out what the hell is going on, because I still have no clue either.

[Lando 2019]

The more Polanski movies I watch, the more I think he's overrated. He does have some great movies, but he's just such an inconsistent director that I don't think he deserves the hype that he gets.

[edogg05 0]

They should absolutely do this movie. I saw it on TV around 8-10 years ago and remembered being very intrigued by the film's suspenseful premise, but also very confused on just what the fuck was happening in certain scenes. Two years ago I saw a DVD copy at a Blockbuster liquidation and figured I'd give it another shot. Being about 12-14 years old at my first viewing, I figured that maybe I just wasn't mature or old enough to quite fully understand/appreciate exactly everything that occurs in the film, or that because of TV editing, certain details were left out of the film. Boy was I wrong. What a waste of a dollar.

[DirtyCircle 5]

This might not be 100% spot on but I have always thought this film was fairly straightfoward in it's symbolic use after the first viewing. (Following was assumed and later pieced together with board posts [imdb, I think] after initial viewing.)

 

 

 

-Who is Green Eyes?

>"Green Eyes" is the devil. Frank Langella is trying to acquire the powers of the devil but he is not the chosen one, the devil has decided Depp's character is more acceptable and has decided to guide/protect him through his journey before finally becoming one with him (the ending, which is purely symbolic as it's depicts the forged union between the two.)

 

This is also the reason for the flying, lack of attention and general badassery. As the devil or "Green Eyes" (played by Polanski's wife) you would expect some sort of general wide range of abilities to overcome any miniscule obstacles that it may face. However, that doesn't mean that you want over-the-top police intanglements. Devil or not, you really can't feasibly go about your sinister business in jail or on the global most wanted list.

 

Corso, I believe, is freaked out by her and acts accordingly, however, she is trying to protect him and while facing constant death by unknown persons, I assumed that he decide it was better to throw his trust into someone than facing death headlong, alone.

 

Also, remember "God" is mostly hands-off on humans anymore. So your joke about killing whomever whenever is largely off. It really depends but God doesn't interfere but the Devil has free reign.

 

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Personally, I wouldn't agree that HDTGM should do a ep on this. Not quite insane enough.

[JonathanBush 4]

I doubt they would ever do this movie but everytime I watch it I leave thinking "Wtf did I just watch?".

 

-Who is Green Eyes?

I'm not so sure she's the Devil. I suspect her identity and true nature are deliberately left vague.

-If Frank Langella was willing to kill everyone for the other books why even send Corso at all?

Of course you mean Boris Balkan right? AFAIK Langella is not known for being particularly bloodthirsty. As the response from the Baroness showed, an intermediary probably would have been a better way to buy the books, just in case either one were willing to sell. I doubt Balkan would have been very weclome at Fargas' place either.

-How did the black albino not notice a red Ferrari tailing him for hours on an empty highway?

We don't know for how long they were on that main highway, do we? Anyway this is the sort of detail which arguably does not matter. Not that I want to argue about it.

-Why does Green Eyes use kung fu?

Why not? It worked didn't it?

-Who killed Bernie and hung him up like the engraving?

Based on the shot of the black albino's feet followed by Green Eyes' feet, the black albino did it.

-Why doesn't the manly French secretary tell the police Corso murdered her boss?

Maybe she did. But one possible reason not to talk about it was indicated by the phone call she received as Corso was leaving the first time. She appeared to be scared of whomever she was talking to. Maybe she was talking to Balkan.

 

My grandfather had a book something like the one in the movie. He never let me see it, which was probably a kindness on his part. It got him what he wanted, but he paid a heavy price.

[NathanGordon 1096]

My grandfather had a book something like the one in the movie. He never let me see it, which was probably a kindness on his part. It got him what he wanted, but he paid a heavy price.

What

 

Tell us more, please.

[JonathanBush 4]

He did let my sisters see it, and I gather from them it was a book about giving your soul to the Devil for material wealth. He moved to California before he died, so he may have left it out there somewhere. His house burned down sometime around 1980, but the lot it was on is still wooded and undeveloped. It's inside the Washington D.C. beltway, in the suburb of Bethesda. Some rich relatives (which I am not) have been paying the taxes all these years. I remember my sister told me she asked him about it before he died, and he told her "you'll never find it." You may be able to see the lot from a satellite image. The South end borders Beech Avenue and the North end borders a hill that used to have gooseberry bushes growing wild, Whitley Park condominuim and then the beltway North of that.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

Was your Grandfather Frank Langella?

[JonathanBush 4]

Mr. Langella is still alive, thankfully, still doing great work, and standing against insanity.

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

The moment the hot woman clad in red appears on screen reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, I instantly pegged her as Satan (or at the very least, a literal red herring - but, of course as we learn later, this film wasn't even clever enough for that). Then she takes Depp's character on a rip-roaring ride through the Parisian streets in a Dodge Viper (because, presumably, Europe was out of Ferrari's at the time), and I knew that this was exactly who she was supposed to be. Groan...!

 

This is total bonk-bonk-over-the-head film making at its worst from the guy who brought us great films such as Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist. Everything neo-Faustian Angel Heart attempted to do marginally okay-ish, this movie did hamfisted and obviously. A Satanic thriller for morons, essentially, and an absolute must for HDTGM.

[RyanSz 3140]

I remember seeing this when it came out on video and was completely confused by what the hell happened in this movie. The ending was sudden and too ambiguous for its own good, and the fact that NO ONE questions any of the weird shit the blonde woman does is beyond me. Now years later as a librarian who studied proper protocol for handling rare materials and archived items, I was appalled by how these people were handling these supposed rare items. The only real reaction was in the opening scene where Depp was bamboozling a family out of first edition Don Quixote, I believe, and the invalid father who owned the book was expressing such rage in his eyes and was unable to tell his dumbass kids how much they were getting screwed by Depp.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

There's so much wrong with this movie, I think my favorite part has to be that Lucifer was actually hand drawing and initialing his own illustrations for the various copies of the book.

 

I can just picture Satan sitting at a drafting table surrounded by a bunch of crumpled up drawings that just quite didn't make the cut.

[NathanGordon 1096]

I kind of enjoyed this movie in spite of the crimes it commits against proper book care and handling. I think it's aiming for the same creepy, Satanic, European atmosphere that Italian giallo used to do so well in the 1970s, or films like Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now.

 

The story is nuts though, and ends up getting mired in its occult nonsense.

 

My favorite detail is the fact that not only is Lucifer signing his illustrations (why???), but that he uses the initials LCF, which stands for.... Lu-ci-fer, I guess. The film acts like this is some deep secret, instead of just being pants on head retarded.

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

I kind of enjoyed this movie in spite of the crimes it commits against proper book care and handling. I think it's aiming for the same creepy, Satanic, European atmosphere that Italian giallo used to do so well in the 1970s, or films like Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now.

 

The story is nuts though, and ends up getting mired in its occult nonsense.

 

My favorite detail is the fact that not only is Lucifer signing his illustrations (why???), but that he uses the initials LCF, which stands for.... Lu-ci-fer, I guess. The film acts like this is some deep secret, instead of just being pants on head retarded.

 

Thank you!

 

I saw this movie with a soon-to-be ex, who insisted this film was all mysterious and clever with it's nods. I was of the opposite opinion, stating that all of the references and "clues" were painfully obvious and easily spelled-out; the Duplo Blocks version of a horror mystery; a faux-Faustian thriller made for chunkheads, essentially. Needless to say, that relationship didn't last.

[bella_008 188]

I just rewatched this on Netflix its totally bonkers and needs to be on the show.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

This movie held back way too much on the supernatural element. Because until the end where Depp figures out the correct ritual, this movie basically explains that the villains and people responsible for all the death throughout the movie are a bunch of Eyes Wide Shut cosplayers. 

But then the end has Depp walking through the Ninth Gate, which is apparently a good thing to do despite the fact that it summons the Devil. Yea this movie makes no sense. 

[NitsujRelis 8]

I remember this movie being a slog.  All I remember is the ending. Johnny Depo has sex with the devil (?) then goes through the portal to hell (?)