1999
Arturo Pérez-Reverte, John Brownjohn
Johnny Depp, Frank Langella, Lena Olin, Emmanuelle Seigner, Barbara Jefford, Jack Taylor, José López Rodero, Tony Amoni, James Russo, Willy Holt, Allen Garfield, Jacques Dacqmine, Joe Sheridan, Rebecca Pauly, Catherine Benguigui
In New York, the money-driven dealer Dean Corso is a rare-books expert and partner of Bernie, who owns a bookstore. He is contacted by the renowned collector of books about the devil Boris Balkan, who has just acquired the rare The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows from the collector Andrew Telfer, to verify whether his book is authentic or a forgery. Balkan explains that the book was written by the writer Aristide Torchia, in 1666, with Lucifer and he was burned at the stake with his entire work. There are only three exemplars of The Nine Gates and in accordance with the legend, its nine engravings form a riddle to conjure the devil. The skeptical Corso accepts the assignment and has to flight to Sintra, Portugal, and Paris, France, to contact the owners Victor Fargas and Baroness Kessler and find the genuine exemplar for Balkan. Meanwhile, he asks Bernie to hide the rare book. Before traveling to Europe, the widow Liana Telfer wants to retrieve the book and has sex with Corso, but he does not accept her offer. When Corso goes Bernie's bookstore, he finds his friend murdered in the same position of an engraving. Corso travels to Toledo, Spain, to meet the Ceniza twin brothers and learn more about The Nine Gates. During his journey in Europe, Corso is pursued by Liana and her bodyguard, who belong to the sect The Order of the Silver Serpents, and is protected by a mysterious Girl with supernatural powers. Meanwhile, the owners of the two other exemplars of The Nine Gates are murdered. Corso becomes obsessed with the book and discloses the truth about it. ------- Dean Corso, a rare book dealer, is appointed by a renowned book collector, Balkan, to verify the authenticity of one of his books. According to sources, only three copies of that book exist, and in three different places. After losing his friend who has been killed for that book, he leaves on the mission. He wants to verify Balkan's book but finds something else! During his dramatic travels through Paris and Madrid, too many things beyond his expectations are revealed! ------- Rare book sleuth Dean Corso has been hired to find the other two existing copies of the seventeenth-century Book of the 'Nine Doors to the Kingdom of Shadows', reputed to hold the key to conjuring up Satan. He travels from Madrid to Paris in search of the book. ------- Dean Corso, a somewhat sleazy rare book dealer, is hired by a mysterious patron who has just come into possession of one of the only three copies of The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows (a 17th century occult text said to give its owner unimaginable power). The man hires Corso to track down the other two copies and compare them to his, but complications - both natural and supernatural - arise at every turn.
134 minutes (at 23.97 frames per second)
752 MB
AVC - resolution: 1280x544