Great Film: The Ninth Gate
masterpiece
Ninth Gate is a masterpiece and it moves with weightless virtuosity.
Polanski has contributed so many brilliant, quirky, unusual,
visionesque, funny things. It was exhilarating to watch this graceful,
lovely, stylish, mature bit of movie-making. Some of his earlier work
has higher highs and lower lows, but this time he's come up with
something so balanced in every respect that it seems close to perfect.
It's fascinating to watch...the casting, storyline, editing, score,
lighting, subtle use of effects...in fact, even his composition in the
opening credits is interesting.
I am more inclined to talk about the movie as an entity and especially
Polanski as a director then its components. Every detail is so
carefully placed and so well integrated. Having been inspired by it to
read the book it's based on, I can say that he has also accomplished
that rare feat of improving the book's story line. Ninth Gate never
wastes time. Every moment is calculated and has a reason. There is
nothing artsy about this art, and for all its style, nothing bloated.
If you rent or purchase the DVD, in some cases it comes with a separate
disk, where Polanski gives a brief analysis of almost every scene in
the movie as they play. This is one case where the extra disc that
comes with a movie may be at least as fascinating as the movie itself.
Listening to him, and thinking about his work, drives home again the
cloddish stupidity, bloated grandiosity posing as power, and utter lack
of vision and artistry in almost everything produced today.
Hearing his voice on this discussion, the way he phrases, his accent,
his interesting sense of humor, the way he compresses his considerable
intellect for this quite sophisticated but casual chat with the
viewer,(and you are not short shrifted here....he speaks for over an
hour....the conversational tone simply has class) was like listening to
an old friend I hadn't seen in a long time. He has a towering gift for
film but expresses himself in such a funny canny unassuming way. A
genuine and original artist and a terrific movie.
Cast
- Dean Corso played by Johnny Depp
- Liana Telfer played by Lena Olin
- Boris Balkan played by Frank Langella
- The Girl played by Emmanuelle Seigner
- Baroness Kessler played by Barbara Jefford
- Victor Fargas played by Jack Taylor
- Pablo & Pedro Ceniza / 1st & 2nd Workmen (as Jose Lopez Rodero) played by José López Rodero
