The Ninth Gate
| The Ninth Gate | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Roman Polanski |
| Produced by | Roman Polanski |
| Screenplay by |
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| Based on |
The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Wojciech Kilar |
| Cinematography | Darius Khondji |
| Edited by | Hervé de Luze |
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Release date
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Running time
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133 minutes |
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| Budget | $38 million |
| Box office | $58.4 million |
| The Ninth Gate (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | |
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| Soundtrack album by Wojciech Kilar | |
| Released | November 16, 1999 |
| Recorded | Score recorded at "Smecky" Studios, Prague, March 1999. |
| Genre | Soundtrack |
| Length | 53:58 |
| Label | Silva Screen SSD 1103 |
| Producer | Reynold da Silva, Gwen Bethel |
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| Allmusic |   |
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The Ninth Gate is a 1999 French-Spanish-American mystery thriller film directed, produced, and co-written by Roman Polanski. The film is loosely based upon Arturo Pérez-Reverte's 1993 novel The Club Dumas. The plot involves the search for a rare, ancient book that purportedly contains a magical secret for summoning the Devil. The premiere showing was at San Sebastián, Spain, on 25 August 1999, a month before the 47th San Sebastian International Film Festival. Though critically and commercially unsuccessful in North America, where reviewers compared it unfavorably with Polanski's celebrated supernatural film Rosemary's Baby of 1968, The Ninth Gate earned a worldwide gross of $58.4 million against a $38 million budget.
Dean Corso (Johnny Depp), a New York City rare book dealer, makes his living conning people into selling him valuable antique books for a low price, and then re-selling them to private collectors. Corso meets with wealthy book collector Boris Balkan (Frank Langella), who has recently acquired a copy of the (fictional) book The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows by 17th-century author Aristide Torchia, one of only three extant copies. The book is an adaptation of one written by the Devil himself and purportedly contains the means to summon the Devil and acquire invincibility and immortality. Balkan believes two of the copies are forgeries. He hires Corso to check all three, and acquire the legitimate one by any means necessary.
Balkan's copy was acquired from Andrew Telfer (Willy Holt), who killed himself soon after. Telfer's widow Liana (Lena Olin) seduces Corso, in a failed attempt to get the book back. Meanwhile, Corso leaves the book for safekeeping with bookseller Bernie Rothstein (James Russo), who is then murdered; his corpse is found posed like an engraving in The Nine Gates.
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Wikipedia