The Ninth Gate 4K 1999

Based on Arturo Pérez-Reverte's novel *The Club Dumas* (*El Club Dumas*). Johnny Depp stars as Mr. Dean Corso, a unique detective-book dealer specializing in rare, antique books worth a fortune. At the request of bibliophile Boris Bolkan, who has spent his entire life collecting books about the Devil, Corso must find two copies in France and Portugal of the book *The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows*, supposedly written by Satan himself. Of the three existing copies of this rarest of books, two are considered forgeries, and the one purchased by this bibliophile the day before his previous owner, Telfer, committed suicide, he gives to Mr. Corso to take with him for comparison, urging him not to spare any expense and to use any means necessary to achieve his goal. Corso suspects that his employer is trying to summon the Devil, but agrees, being a cynical man. After a while, strange things begin to happen—a woman is following him, someone is searching his house, turning everything upside down, and then Corso gives his copy to Bernie (Russo), the owner of a small rare book shop, for safekeeping. Unexpectedly, the widow (Lina Olin) of Telfer, who hanged himself, approaches Corso with a request to return the book her husband sold. She promises a good sum of money and puts her feminine charms to work (Olin still looks stunning), showing the viewer a satanic, serpentine tattoo on her seductive buttock. When she can’t find the book after they have sex, she furiously attacks Corso, scratching and biting him, then knocks him out with a blow to the head from a bottle. Immediately afterward, Corso finds the body of the murdered Bernie hanging from the ceiling in his little shop, in exactly the same pose depicted in the book’s illustration. He also finds the book itself, which he tries to return to Bolkan, quitting his job, but still cannot help but continue the search. In Spain, from the twin brothers who sold the book to Mrs. Telfer—and not to her husband, as she herself claimed—he learns that the three engravings were signed by none other than... Lucifer. When Corso leaves them, he is nearly buried under the scaffolding of a building under renovation that collapses on top of him, and in a train car he once again encounters the fair-haired young woman who has been watching him practically from the very beginning of the story, occasionally acting as a guardian angel in the flesh. One could go on to recount in detail the plot of this detective story featuring mysterious murders and the search for a satanic book, which raises the question of whether culture is the creation of God or the devil, but it’s better to watch it yourself and form your own opinion. It is shot competently and with technical skill; interest is constantly and skillfully maintained, and the suspense builds, so fans of the mystical genre in the best traditions of “The Omen” will be satisfied.