boccaccio6

When films come out of novels always the same debate arises: which is better, is it faithful, why the changes and so on. Let's take for example Hillcoat's adaptation of The Road; rarely seen a more humble and plain translation from the word to the image. In The Ninth Gate something very different happened. At one end we have Arturo Perez Reverte's novel The Club Dumas, a nice well built story with thrill, adventure, kind of romance, strong hints to supernatural, blood, twists, nothing missing for a good screenplay and a box office hit. On the opposite end Polanski adaptation, where everybody and everything is twisted, painted with the most evil (thus confused)colors. Surely happy are the satanists with their unending arguments about who is what, how Hell is furnished and the color of Satan's tie. If you mess with the Devil you get a mess, and there may be a touch of art in it. The reason of the twisting may be found in the terrible past of Polanski, the war, the murder of his wife. So, i guess, having read that robust and effective novel the director went on a trip of his own into the darkest unknown.

Well, I am not sure what to think about this movie I had fun looking at it, Lauren German is more than gorgeous, the acting has no flaws, the pace is satisfying, characters are alive, normal, but the place where they are is not . The story is not that original, if you have some practice in mystery thrillers you have a fair chance to guess what is happening long before the end. Could be a remake of some old movie, a good remake anyway. What I liked most is the nice photography of the desert night. Did you ever feel out of space-time looking at a starred sky, undisturbed by city lights? Well, that is the case. As for the 3D, have fun.