Corso’s a fool, and the movie makes it clear from the very beginning. And if you’re not convinced, just listen to that bumbling musical theme composer Wojciech Kilar has created for Corso, all quirky strings and bass. In a way, he’s also a counterpart to Jack Nicholson’s Jake Gittes in Polanski’s own Chinatown (1974), always one step behind, never really understanding what’s going on.
Does he actually like books? Probably, but not as much as the money he can make from selling them.
Depp’s character, Dean Corso, is a droll, oily dealer of rare books who’s only interested in profits. There are many layers at play here, the first of which is a sly nod to pulp detective novels. Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) inspects The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows. The Ninth Gate is not only a supernatural genre movie, it’s also a send-up of the genre. Seeing it again after several years, I finally realized that it really is in keeping with Polanski’s twisted sense of humor – particularly as part of his late 80’s and 90’s output which includes Frantic (1988), Bitter Moon (1992), and Death and the Maiden (1994). The tale of a book “detective” of sorts (Johnny Depp) who becomes enmeshed in a mystery involving satanic cults, obsessed collectors, and an ancient volume entitled The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, it just never quite worked for me… and I really like satanic cults! But I digress. I had seen this lesser-known effort from Roman Polanski at least twice before, and had always felt disappointed that the film didn’t take itself too seriously. Written by Roman Polanski, John Brownjohn, and Enrique Urbizuīased on the novel El Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
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