Hey folks, LCD has written in with a look at Polanski and Johnny Depp's NINTH GATE. Once again, this film just has filmmakers involved that I'm fascinated by. You always have to watch out for Polanski... he can surprise you. Depp of course is a god. And then Darius' DP work is second to nearly noone. The review does have spoilers, but LCD really had a blast with the film... Hope it's good.... here ya go...
NINTH GATE - Review!
Hi Harry!
My name is LCD. and I teach script writing at the Danish Film School in Copenhagen, Denmark (Europe/Scandinavia).
For the last two days world famous director Roman Polanski was at the school showing his new film, "The Ninth Gate" an talking about his extraordinary career. Great, funny guy! I'm a big fan of Polanski and I took the coffee cop and ashtray he was using... Yes, I know, I need help...
Okay, here's the review of The Ninth Gate, an occult thriller:
WARNING, SPOILER A HEAD!!!
The Story: New York 1999. Johnny Depp is this hard drinking, lonely but cool guy, who buys and sells rare books. He's hired by an eccentric book collector (Frank Langella) to travel to Europe to find out if an extremely rare occult book is genuine or a copy.
Depp soon realizes that something "funny" is going on as people start dying around him. He teams up with a strange, young Beauty who saves his life. Together they fight the forces of evil... Langella is a madman who wants to open THE NINTH GATE to get total power from Satan... Depp shoots Langella, but surprise, surprise (DELETED TO NOT GIVE AWAY ENDING)... or something, maybe I didn't understand the ending??!
The film is very well directed by Polanski, as usual, and beautifully shot by Darius Khondji (Seven, Alien 4...). The style, the pacing, the editing, the acting, the story, everything is perfect... if this was 1979. Old fashioned? Yes, but in a good way! It brings back happy memories of films like The Omen, The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby and other occult thrillers of the seventies.
I love horror movies and thought it was a great. And a movie where super sexy Lena Olin (Romeo's Bleeding) seduces Johnny Depp can't be bad! Check it out!
Polanski told us that he made the movie because of his fascination with old books.
'till next time. LCD
