The Ninth Gate (1999)

Directed by Roman Polanski. Starring Johnny Depp, Emmanuelle Seigner, Frank Langella, Lena Olin, Barbara Jefford, James Russo, Jack Taylor. [R]

Depp’s rare book dealer is hired by an enigmatic collector (Langella) to track down copies of a devil-summoning tome, ends up in cahoots with an unnamed, comely—but presumably demonic—entity (Seigner) while defying delusional occultists. Intriguing in its setup and navigation, following a bookish globetrotter with an elusive dark side, and manages to deal with hokum in conventional ways without dishonoring certain genre expectations (lots of robes, symbols, fire, demonic imagery, and kinky sex in the last few reels). Too talky in the first half, and the ellipsis of an ending will frustrate a lot of viewers, but Polanski’s on his game, his elegant sense of extravagance honing a wicked edge. Even more so than his Rosemary’s Baby, we’re let in early that it’s all a gag, bubbling with comic exaggerations and tongue-in-cheek demonstrations. The occult is seen as a big joke out of the playbook of a smirking showman (part P. T. Barnum, part William Castle); if there’d been a whiff of self-importance or true-believer hysteria, the whole convoluted contraption would have collapsed like a ring of dominoes. Warm but shadowy photography by Darius Khondji. Polanski also produced and co-scripted the adaptation of Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s book, “The Club Dumas”.

73/100