- Directed by Roman Polanski
- Written by Arturo Perez-Reverte, John Brownjohn, Enrieuq Urbizu
- Stars Johnny Depp, Frank Langella, Lena Olin
- Run Time: 2 Hours, 13 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKc1n-nIIx0
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Excellent direction from Polanski and excellent acting from Johnny Depp and Frank Langella elevate what isn’t really much of a movie or story to something watchable. It’s a scavenger hunt as the immoral hero tries to piece together a puzzle while dark forces are working against him. HorrorGuy Kevin was somewhat annoyed with an ending that he didn’t find at all satisfying.
Synopsis
A man writes in his very ornate office. We pan around to see that he has a noose hanging nearby. He finishes his letter and then hangs himself. We pan over again to the man’s bookshelves, where one book is missing. Credits roll.
Dean Corso, a rare book expert, talks to a family about buying an old man’s books. He appraises the collection at $600,000. He looks at a collection of Don Quixote that he says is not very valuable at all, but he offers them $4000 for it. The old man, who can’t speak, knows his heirs are being robbed. Another book expert comes in on the way out and calls Corso “unscrupulous!” Corso overvalued the collection, which will screw his competitor when he tries to buy what’s left. Corso then goes to his book-broker friend, Bernie, to sell the Don Quixote, which is worth a fortune.
Corso goes to a seminar given by Boris Balkan, about conceptions of “Evil” and witches. Corso goes to sleep at the old man’s talk. Balkan says Corso is one of those guys who stabs friends in the back. Balkan is a client, and he pays well. Balkan collects books about the devil, and he has many of them.
They are extremely rare, and he’s only missing one book, “The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows,” written in 1666. The author was burned, and only one real copy survived. There are supposed to be three, but two are fake; Balkan has one, bought from the man who killed himself earlier. The books are based upon a book supposedly written by Satan himself. The books have hints that will allow someone to actually conjure up Satan. Balkan wants Corso to get the other two copies of the books to see which is the real one. Balkan knows there’s something not right with his copy, since the Devil didn’t show up.
Corso talks to Liana Tefler, the dead man’s widow. She tells him the story of where her husband got the book. He asks if Andrew ever tried to do a ritual from the book, and Liana laughs at the idea. When he goes home, his apartment has been broken into and the place is trashed. Fortunately, he had the book with him; he goes and leaves the book at Bernie’s place.
Liana comes to see him, and she wants the book back. She offers him a lot of money for it, but he doesn’t bite. She then tries to “sex” it out of him. Since he doesn’t have the book on him anymore, she gets a little annoyed and breaks a bottle over his head.
Corso goes back to Bernie’s and finds Bernie dead, posed like one of the pictures in the book. Whoever did it didn’t find the book, so Corso takes it with him. He calls Balkan and says he wants out; he wants to return the book. Balkan offers him ten times the fee to continue.
Corso flies to Europe to continue his search. He goes to an old man book dealer who smokes and drops ashes all over the book. The man there says Liana would never have given the book up; they owned it before Liana’s husband bought it. They swear the book is not a forgery. The engravings in the book were signed by “LCF,” which they think is “Lucifer” himself, the collaborator of the book. When he leaves, Corso is almost buried in an accident outside.
He takes a train and runs into a woman he’s seen somewhere before, and he thinks she’s following him. He calls her “Green Eyes.” He thinks Balkan sent her to tail him.
Next, he goes to see Victor Fargas, the owner of one of the other copies of the book. Fargas’s house is huge and almost completely empty; he’s sold almost all the contents. They compare Corso’s copy to Fargas’s, and notice slight differences in the pictures. Some were drawn by “LCF” and others by “AT.” Of the nine pictures, Balkan’s has three LCF drawings, and Fargas’s has three different ones.
As he leaves Fargas’s place, Corso is nearly run over by someone, but “Green Eyes” rides up on a motorcycle to scare the man away.
Corso catches up with Green Eyes again that night at the hotel. She’s intentionally evasive. Corso gets a phone call from Balkan for an update.
Morning comes, and Green Eyes tells Corso that he needs to go back to Fargas’s place. Sometime in the night, Fargas has conveniently drowned in his fountain. Corso goes in and takes the book; there are signs of a struggle, and the book is half burnt in the fireplace. The pages with the pictures have been torn out. Corso wants to know who Green Eyes is working for, but she doesn’t say.
Corso goes to see Baroness Kessler, who owns the third copy of the book. The old woman says she’s been in love with “The devil” for her entire life. The old woman mentions the “Order of the Silver Serpent,” a secret society devoted to keeping the secret of the book and having lots of orgies. The organization read from Liana’s copy in previous years, which is probably why she wants it back. When Balkan’s name comes up, the old woman tells Corso to leave.
As he leaves, Corso sees the man who tried to run him over a few days ago following him. The man chases and attacks him, but the Green Eyes literally flies in and runs the man off. She’s very strange, and that fact doesn’t escape him.
He goes back to see Baroness Kessler again. They compare pictures in her copy, and they are also different from the other two copies. Someone knocks Corso out, and when he wakes up, the Baroness is dead and the place is on fire. Her book burns.
When he gets back to his hotel, his copy of the book is also gone. The concierge says he let his wife into the room. Balkan calls and wants his book back, but Corso admits that he doesn’t have it anymore. Green Eyes shows up, but she’s not the one who took the book; he thinks it was Liana Telfer.
Corso and Green Eyes steal a car and follow Liana and her bodyguard to her home, a big house in the country. Other people are arriving; it’s the night of the big ritual for the Silver Serpents. They confront Liana, who pulls a gun on them.
Corso knocks out the bodyguard, and the two crash the party. In the middle of everything, Boris Belkan barges in and calls them buffoons. He and Liana argue about the silly ritual. When Corso tries to get in the middle of it, Green Eyes flies down and stops him. Balkan strangles Liana and runs the others off.
Corso follows Balkan to his castle way up in the mountains. He watches as Balkan lays out the nine pictures from the book; he’s figured out the puzzle. He pours a big ring of gasoline and sets it afire with him inside it. He says he can feel the power, and then, just to show off, he pours the gas all over himself and burns, thinking that he’s immortal now. And then starts to scream.
Corso grabs the nine pictures and shoots Balkan. Outside, Green Eyes meets him at the car and gives him a big kiss before they have sex in front of the burning castle. Later, Corso asks, “Is the game over?” She replies that she gave Balkan a forgery of the ninth picture. When he stops to gas up the car, she leaves him a note letting him know he should go back to the old man’s bookstore and disappears.
He returns to the old man’s bookstore, which is now empty. Among the trash is the ninth plate from the book; the two old men had it all along.
Corso goes back to the castle. He’s going to open the ninth gate.
Commentary
The books are worth fortunes; all Corso does is smoke cigarettes around them and toss them onto desks. This may be the “chain smokiest” movie ever! At least the Baroness told him he couldn’t smoke in her library.
It’s a slowly unfolding mystery in which the main character has to find three MacGuffins to solve a puzzle. However, after the Countess dies, the film becomes a little too slow and draggy in the middle.
We don’t see the devil unless Green Eyes is the devil. There also isn’t really much magic or special effects. It’s mostly just a mystery thriller that involves a hunt for a Satanic book.