Netflix And Chill: The Ninth Gate (1999)

While people have a number of different reasons for holding whatever opinions they have on director Roman Polanski, something that isn't mentioned enough is the simple fact that he has never equalled his cinematic output of the 1960s and 1970s. That's not to say that he hasn't made some very good films in more recent decades, but they're certainly not his best, and some are perhaps given a bit more leeway because of his name being attached to them. The Ninth Gate is one of those lesser films, and you can still find many people who champion it as a fine modern horror movie . . . which I think proves my point.

Johnny Depp plays Dean Corso, a rare book dealer who is hired by Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) to locate and check over copies of a book that supposedly gives the reader the chance to summon the devil. This job leads to Corso crossing paths with Liana Telfer (Lena Olin) and Baroness Kessler (Barbara Jefford), two women who may be in possession of the valuable texts. It also leads to him encountering a mysterious woman (Emmanuelle Seigner) who may want to help him, but could easily be seeking to frustrate his ongoing attempt to complete his task. The more that Corso investigates the book, the more he starts to see things that become harder to explain rationally.

Adapted from a novel, 'El Club Dumas', by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Ninth Gate has a screenplay by Polanski, John Brownjohn (who collaborated with the director on 4 or 5 movies), and Enrique Urbizu, that feels exactly in line with what Polanski wants to deliver. It's another one of his films that walks a tightrope in between horror and comedy, but that tightrope-walk is something that Polanski managed much more successfully in many of his earlier movies. Give me the inspired madness of The Tenant or Cul-de-sac. Please don't give me something else that reminds me of the ridiculous Bitter Moon.

Depp is fine in the main role, although he plays a character so unflappable that the third act fails to provide any real tension, but there are a few treats to be had in the supporting cast. Langella is his usual formidable presence, and plays his part with an admirably straight face. Olin does well, up to a point, but the screenplay sets out to make her character very silly by the time she is given a more active role in the second half of the film. Jefford is excellent, helped by the fact that she seems to be more savvy to what is really going on, and she doesn't seem to be as easily manipulated as other people in the movie. Seigner does what is asked of her, and I won't waste time being too rude about her appalling inability to give anything close to a decent performance. There's a good reason that her biggest movie roles seem to have been in movie directed by Polanski AKA her husband.

There's a decent score from Wojciech Kilar, some shots look nice enough (I guess), but there aren’t many more compliments I can give it. I will begrudgingly admit that one or two moments of humour work, especially one moment in which a character essentially berates a group of satanic cult members as nothing more than ignorant cosplayers, but that’s a rare moment that works in a movie that runs for just over two hours. If this wasn’t directed by Polanski, it would have been series and dismissed immediately, and completely forgotten by now.

3/10

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Mubi Monday: Essential Killing (2010)

Although a fairly slim plot (an Afghan POW escapes, and attempts to stay alive, at all costs, after being shown killing some U.S. soldiers), Essential Killing is a very interesting experience. Showing the central character in a fairly non-judgemental way, no matter how bad things get, it makes you consider whether or not the title is earned.

Vincent Gallo is Mohammed, the main character. Whether he's being tortured by his military captors, eating ants, almost freezing to death, his committed performance makes the choice of casting him more understandable (despite him very much not being from anywhere near the Middle East). The construction of the film is very much as you'd expect. You get the act of violence that leads to his capture, a few scenes of torture, the escape, the survival mode section, and a seemingly-inevitable ending.

Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, who co-wrote the movie with Ewa Piaskowska, Essential Killing feels like a movie made by people who want to make a very specific point, yet don't really have enough depth and content to turn it into a full movie. Despite the slim runtime, it clocks in at about 83 minutes, this still feels a bit overlong. It needs something more, something to make the viewing experience more worthwhile, and the ending doesn't do enough to make up for the disappointment of the plodding third act.

Skolimowski has a filmography that I'm still keen to explore (and I recommend that everyone checks out the sublime Deep End from 1970), but I am sadly unfamiliar with most of his work. Essential Killing may not be an essential viewing choice, but it's one to admire. A lot of the choices made, in terms of the main character and the plotting, are interesting, at the very least, and the passive overview is not one that you'd find in many (any?) other films on this subject.

Gallo, as already mentioned, it committed to his cause. He's a strange acting presence, and always has been, but he's someone always worth giving some time to (except when he's in The Brown Bunny, which I recall being pretty dire). There's not one moment here in which he doesn't feel as if he IS this character, making one or two moments more disturbing because they seem so real. Very few others have main roles, although Emmanuelle Seigner pops up towards the end of the film, and is almost a relief from the time we've spent so closely attached to Gallo.

I won't rush to watch this again, and I wouldn't recommend it to many others, but I am glad I sat down once with this. It's certainly a film that feels like it should provide a springboard for a lot more thought and conversation, despite not actually managing to do so.

6/10

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