The Ninth Gate Fans Blog

Ninth Gate Polls to Take

2011-12-23T15:44:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone! I hope you have a Merry Christmas this year. I have been quite busy.

Here is a page of fun polls to take about our favorite movie -- the Ninth Gate!

Ninth Gate Polls

I wrote these polls myself of course. There aren't many sites devoted to the Ninth Gate since it came out over ten years ago, but we all know our fanaticism for it never dies.

I know I get a nice amount of traffic from both the US and Europe. Please leave some comments for my blog if you have the time to do so.

I hope you get to have a tableful of festive food for the holidays, and not just a frozen dinner thrown into the microwave still in its box a la Corso! Cheers!

2011-11-10T15:55:00.001-05:00

An obsessed fan's review of The Ninth Gate

http://smartypens.hubpages.com/hub/The-Ninth-Gate

2011-10-20T16:19:00.002-04:00

The Club Dumas -- Noticing Differences

I started reading El Club Dumas by Reverte, and it is excellent but a little difficult to follow. I am determined to get through it. I noticed a few differences already. Liana Telfer is a young blonde in the book, and Dean Corso's name is Lucas Corso. Those are the most simple differences. There are all kinds of complex details in the book -- things I have to read over to truly understand. I believe the Three Musketeers is one of the themes. I will be reading El Club Dumas on a few long, rainy days, when my paperwork stack is not so high.

I have to say that the brown-haired Liana Telfer in the film was perfectly cast. Polanski noted in his Director's Commentary that he wanted an actress that could portray sophistication as well as have the audience believe she could be the leader of a coven. At different times in the film she is referred to as 40ish, dishy, brunette ...

One thing is the same in both movie and book -- lots of liquor and cigarettes. Doesn't quite go with the preserved, antique book theme, but it hits that moody noir note just right. I don't drink or smoke in real life, but after watching The NInth Gate and reading some El Club Dumas, I want to!

2011-10-06T16:25:00.000-04:00

I watch the Ninth Gate at least once a month. Is anyone out there as obsessed as me? Part of the reason I love it so much -- as crazy as it sounds -- is because I would like to live as the characters do in the film. I would love to live in a chateau as did Mrs. Telfer, in an old-fashioned chic Paris apartment as did Baroness Kessler, or in a old stone mansion in Portugal as did Victor Fargas.

Funny thing, until recently, I lived like Dean Corso, in a downtown apartment like his. I believe his apartment was in Manhattan. Mine was in downtown Philly.

I remember the scene in The Ninth Gate, where Corso is running up his front stairs in a rain storm, and you can see the store lights next to his apartment building - a small streetscape. I remember running up the stairs during rain storms to my old apartment building, just like he did, into an abode of books and old pieces of furniture. Mind you, I didn't have the mossy green walls as he did in his place (and in many interiors of the movie), but it had the same feel.

Corso would like my downtown Philly apartment, complete with dusty books and austere furniture.

I got the feeling Corso was comforted by the mustiness of his volumes and his hours of research as he gently flicked page after page of them. And when he was hungry he would eat from the microwave because those books consumed so much of his life. It reminded me of my own life in a way, as an editor, crossing out scores of mistakes on books, essays, papers. Then because I spent so many hours working on the materials I had to run across the street to get some quick Chinese before closeting myself back up with books and papers.

My dining table covered in books and an old candelabra. Corso would appreciate the suit of armor as well!

Do you draw parallels to any of the characters in The Ninth Gate to yourself or people in your life?

Minus the deaths and getting scuffed up, Corso's life in The Ninth Gate was a bookworm's dream. It was nice to feel similar to the character of Corso, even if he is just fictional.

2011-10-06T15:08:00.000-04:00

Hello to all who stumble upon my Ninth Gate Fans blog. I have loved the movie The Ninth Gate for so long and so much that I decided I just have to blog about it online. I know there are fans of The Ninth Gate everywhere, and I hope you are one of them. I will be discussing The Ninth Gate movie from every angle and every subtopic imaginable, so please stop by frequently to see new blog posts.

Here is a review I wrote of The Ninth Gate movie. I hope you enjoy it:

The Ninth Gate: A film for a lush, intellectual escape