Midweek Mention... The Ninth Gate

The Ninth Gate

Sidey: This is gate week. Yeah. Obviously.

Reegs: Is it

inspired by a particular gate moment for you? There's a lot of having to close the gate at your place, isn't

Sidey: there is I think, I dunno, I can't remember, but on my list of things, I had enemy at the gate. And top five gates. And then it said some kids gate and didn't have Yeah.

A midweek. Yeah. And you'll be relieved. It was nearly heaven's gate.

It's five hours, 25 minutes long.

Reegs: Five hours,

Cris: What

Reegs: Yeah. It's

Sidey: of the like real notorious Hollywood flops.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: Michael

Cris: What is it called?

Sidey: Heaven's Gate to Western. Yeah. Heaven's Gate, it was mega, mega flop. It was where the studio just let this Michael Camino just went basically outta control and budget and really like, You know, his, his vision.

Cris: five

Reegs: God, I am so glad you didn't do that.

Sidey: I thought, well, regs didn't watch Lawrence Arabia and Chris hates anything over 90 minutes, so [00:01:00] I Googled other films with the name Gate

Cris: don't hate, I watched

Sidey: No, but you would've, you would've hated a five and a half minute flop. It

Cris: good. I watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and that was really good.

I watched, I dunno, I,

Sidey: I think that

Cris: watched long movies and I like the avatar, you know, or I, I liked movies that are long, but just if they're long, just for the purpose of being long.

Sidey: Well, I think this one has been sort of reappraised over time and is sort of quite well regarded, but I didn't want to submit even myself to that.

So it went for the ninth gate? Yeah. Which I had never, ever heard of before.

I'd Really? Well, okay. I've never heard of, so I just. I went for it just 'cause I had Johnny Depp and it wasn't until I put it on and realized it was the Roman Polanski film, which could be problematic for some people if you care about that sort of stuff.

So that was interesting, just getting, just getting into it. Yeah. And it's a kind of a culty, bookish thriller to me, felt almost like a pre, like, like a devil version of the Da Vinci Code.

Cris: Similar to

that. Yeah.

Sidey: Like a kind of mystery [00:02:00] thing.

Reegs: It's just got the feel to me of like a, it's because the pace is kind of slow.

It's just like, feels like a seventies movie in some

Cris: based on a book. No. it is based on the, the Duma group or

Something like that.

Something like

Reegs: And Polanski, of course, has formed for the occult before, 'cause he

Sidey: did Rosemary Babies.

Reegs: Baby. So,

Sidey: it's, there's a, there's the in bit with the credits where it's just this long shot going through doorways

Reegs: the books.

Sidey: And the name sort of flashed towards you a little bit, like Superman anyway, but it goes on for ages.

I was getting like brass eye vibes. It's just such an exaggerating

Cris: I felt.

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: Yeah. Especially because when I watch stuff, I, I, I don't wear my specs just because in the house I, I try not to wear the specs all the time, so I was just like, fuck, how is this?

is going on there? Yeah. I I, I totally get what you very

Reegs: a cool scene that, because it's the opening of the movie, it starts with a, a writer at his desk. Andrew Telfa will come to know who it is.

Yes.

Cris: Yeah. The old boy

Reegs: seals a letter and then he moves over to a [00:03:00] stool

Sidey: shows us a noose. And you're like, oh

Reegs: Yeah. Ominously seen. And he just hangs himself there. You see his feet twitching

Sidey: slippers, I think he had on.

Reegs: Yeah. It's nice. You, you hear the sounds of him like struggling to breathe and you just see his feet hideous.

And then the camera like pans along this. Bookshelf in his study to the one missing book, and then it enters that sequence, like you say, the

Sidey: site.

Yeah. It

Reegs: on for and then it's New York City rare book collector Dean Corso. It's Johnny Depp buying books from a couple they're selling their father's collection.

Yeah. he's like,

Sidey: this

Cris: But it,

Reegs: the father is like a kind of, he's dribbling I in his wheelchair,

Cris: know what this was? This was the thing when I, when I watched it, because obviously I've never watched it before. It was, for me, it was more like, because I, I didn't really remember the old boys face that's committed suicide. I actually thought that that's related to the first scene, and I thought the guy in the wheelchair is, he didn't say like a week later or something.

I just thought. Is that the same guy that was in earlier? [00:04:00] Because it still looked like a library and quite cool. I didn't really focus on how the guy looked like, and I was just thinking, is this the same? But obviously it's not the same and these people are trying to sell the collection and

Reegs: Yeah. And he's like fluffing them up with how much their collection is worth and really playing to their avarice. And he's like, oh, but there's just this old copy of donkey Hote here.

It's not really worth much, but I'll take it off your hands. You know, it's a, a con straight away. And he's gotta be the most disrespectful, like rare book handler of all time. He's smoking a cigarette,

Sidey: This got me all the way through, and I've seen stuff with books, old books where they have to wear gloves, you know, everything's very, very,

Reegs: and he's supposed to love

Sidey: They're just like flicking through them, like it's a mills and boon, you know, the

Reegs: It's like drinking a

Cris: Yeah. He is drinking. He's Siggy all the time. Yeah, it's mental.

Reegs: So anyway, he, he takes this book off them and then brings it back to his mate and it's worth an absolute fortune.

You can't believe it.

Cris: Three volumes. The original Donte.

Reegs: hotta. Yeah. So he goes off to a lecture on medieval [00:05:00] literature that's being given by Frank Langella as Boris Balkan. Though he only falls asleep during, he falls asleep during it, doesn't he, he wakes up when Balkan asks, walks in to ask him if he was stimulated,

Cris: and that's where the first time when he sees the Reebok. I can't remember the Roman Polanski's wife in real life. That woman. What's her face? The girl is in the movie.

She's called The Girl,

Reegs: The Girl, Yeah.

Cris: What

Sidey: Emmanuel something,

Cris: something? Yeah. The that with the Rebox. She has a rebox

Sidey: sin.

Reegs: Is that the first time you see her in,

Cris: that's, yeah. In the lecture.

Reegs: was trying to work that out.

Cris: That's the first time you see her in the lecture? Yeah, because she kind of looks at him, he kind of looks at her and he, he looks at the shoes because she just looks a bit like a, like a homeless person

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah. She's a bit outta place, isn't she? Balkan takes Johnny Depp down to see his rare book collection full of like stuff like nuts and zoo and Razzle and that,

Sidey: read his wives,

him his

Reegs: recently acquired copy of this book and he recognizes it, doesn't he?

By the pentagram and the snake or

Sidey: That's the ne [00:06:00] Necronomicon.

Reegs: Yeah, it's the, it's written by this guy who says it's written in collaboration with the devil, and there's three copies out in the world.

Cris: and he's got one

Sidey: three surviving copies, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. And he's got one and there's two others out there.

Reegs: So it's this really evil text. And I think he makes some joke about, oh, how do you know? He's like, he basically says to him, oh, I want you to see if mine's are forgery, basically, compared to the other, the other ones that are out there. And he's like, oh, how'd you know? Yours is a forgery. You know, have you tried using it to summon the devil and it didn't work?

And he just looks at him like. Yeah, that's, you know, that's basically exactly what

happened.

So yeah, he, Balkan has recently bought the book from Telfa Telfa in the beginning of the scene. So, yeah.

Cris: And then he says to him, I'm gonna hire you. You need to go to Portugal and France to study these other copies, and this is a check.

Reegs: Yeah. And then he says, he asks why him? And he says, there's nothing more reliable than a [00:07:00] man who's loyalty that can, can be bought for cold hard cash. Which is like, that's his journey in the movie, isn't it?

Cris: Pretty much, yeah. And, and that's the thing. He's like, oh, I cannot, that's why there's so many zeroes on the check or something like that.

So, because initially he just takes the check, it doesn't look, and then when he looks, he's like, I guess I'm going to France now. And then he goes to his mate.

Reegs: He's told Balkan has told him explicitly to look out for these engravings that are in the book. Yeah. He's studied them already in the thing.

And so that's what he's gone off into France and Spain to look at

Cris: But before that, he does.

he does

go to see. Yeah. He does go to see his mate and he does feel like he's being

Reegs: Yeah. But it's the go

Cris: while he starts, while he starts to do the investigation, he goes to see Ms. Er. Yes.

Lean Is Lean. Or

Reegs: Leanna

Sidey: Lianna.

Cris: Leanna. Leanna Telfer. Who, and he goes to see her, who she still, she still lives in New York. Yeah. And goes to kind of question her and she's like, oh, it was my husband's book. She's just like a bit. [00:08:00] Evasive and just a bit distant and whatever.

Reegs: does, she does strongly imply that he wouldn't have like, just sold it.

And how's he really come? How's ba can really come into possession of it because he would've loved it and all this sort of Not quite Then he, they do though. Yeah. He goes home to find, his house has been ransacked, doesn't it? After he's seen the girl. And then he gives the book to Bernie.

That guy,

Cris: And that's the first time he see the, the blonde mustache guy.

Reegs: Yeah. Oh, the

Cris: her gaff. Yeah. The, the, I dunno what

Reegs: he's a black man. He's we'll find

Cris: Quite handsome,

Reegs: given

Cris: I'll give him that.

Reegs: bodyguard, he's got a very distinctive look, almost like Simon Phoenix from

Sidey: yeah,

Cris: but he's got a Tash.

Reegs: Yeah.

But he's got a Tash and so he gives the book to Bernie for safekeeping, who values it himself independently at like, well over a million dollars or whatever. So we know that it's valuable.

Sidey: it's legit.

Reegs: Then when he goes back to his apartment, Liana turns up. Yeah. All sexy and sultry. Yeah.

Cris: Oh yeah. It is. The, the, oh yeah. Have you seen that? I can't [00:09:00] remember the name of that car. There's a machine gun in her

Reegs: Yeah.

Cris: And she just pulls up her skirt

Reegs: and so we can see a little snake tattoo that she has on her thigh. Yeah. 'cause she's, we'll find out she's a member of this serpent society.

Sidey: Yeah. The Pagans people against Good and Normalcy. No, that's a different film.

Reegs: A sort of Satanic cult that's at play in Um, so after they have sex, which like seems to be coly short or whatever, as soon as they get up, like, she's like, well, right, where is it?

Sidey: Yeah, gimme the book. Yeah.

Reegs: And he doesn't have it. And she's really pissed off at him and she flips right on him, didn't she? He's like still got his trousers around his ankles, like fighting her off.

So yeah.

Cris: And then he goes to Bernie and Bernie's hanged upside down.

Reegs: Yeah, she hits him with a bottle, doesn't she? Yeah. And he gets knocked out and then he, yeah, he

Sidey: he's gets a few concussions in this movie.

Reegs: Yeah. And it's represented by like this nice little split frame shot when she hits him over the back of the head.

The like frame goes

Sidey: Yeah. But yeah, he does get, I couldn't work [00:10:00] out how Bernie had died 'cause he's, he's hanged but he is upside down. He was

Cris: hanged upside down. But it's, it's exactly the

same, Like

Sidey: one of the engravings in the

Cris: the engravings in the book,

Sidey: but so.

Cris: so, I

dunno, there's blood coming out of

Sidey: what's coming outta my nose. But it'd been hanged by his foot. I, I dunno.

Reegs: And these are all recreations of tarot cards as well.

Sidey: Okay.

Reegs: So he talks to, he goes to he, he tries to back out, but Balkan's hearing none of it and says, just have more money. So then he ends up going off to Spain to meet these two cousin

Cris: Yeah,

the brothers, yeah.

Reegs: twins. Yeah.

Cris: Where the initial book, the book was bought from. Yeah. Where Telfer bought the book from there. And they tell him that actually Leanne or Leanna bought the book, not. George or whatever

the guy

Reegs: Yeah. Telfa. They also, crucially there's a little exchange where they reveal that.

'cause he says, oh, what is the chance of my book being a forgery? And they go, oh, you couldn't be a forgery. You'd have to do this, this, this, this, and this. Which is all the steps necessary to create a forgery, which is exactly what will happen [00:11:00] right at the end of the movie. They'll have created a forgery.

Sidey: Yeah. And so, he's gonna have to go off and get these books and invest. They point some bits out of the book like, look, this is

Reegs: well, they point out that in the differences between the book, they've got LCF on the engravings like clearly Lucifer. So on some set of engravings, there's three that have got Lucifer and six I think that have got at in each of the books, but different

Sidey: Andrew Thomas.

Reegs: Yeah. Andrew

Cris: Well then he goes to Cintra to Portugal to see the old boy.

Sidey: he's in a sort of stately home, but it's fallen on hard times.

Cris: And he only has this book collection

Sidey: his violin.

Cris: and his violin, booze, he's got, he's got quite, and I'll give it to him. Have you seen what he drinks?

Yeah. It's a cognac. It's Kaus. XO is is a very nice cognac.

Sidey: I, I kind of felt like Johnny Zepp took this role, like. On the assurance that there was gonna be loads of booze and as many cies as he could get through.

Yeah. 'cause that's, he spends a lot of

Reegs: hang out in Europe. Go to Spain, go

Sidey: movies, smoking and drinking. Yeah. Yeah.

Cris: Well, I mean,

Sidey: Fair play

Cris: with [00:12:00] that, I guess.

And this was the time when he was living in South France anyway,

Reegs: it was probably deeply problematic. Now looking at the history of both those men, to be honest, God knows what was going on when you think about it. But,

anyway, anyway, anyway.

Sidey: mate is, he's like quite compliant with this guy. He is like, yeah, yeah, you can hang around and study the book as long as you want. And he just goes into the room and sort of serenades him with his violin, doesn't he? Yeah. It's nice bit of

Cris: And that's another one where he handles the book. Like he, he puts one on top of each other and he has a bit of booze and a ciggy and it's just a bit like, which one? Do you know which one is which anymore?

And I dunno, it is just a bit

Sidey: yeah, he's then he, he gets a grid, doesn't he? With book 1, 2, 3 and the, the nine different engravings and which ones have LCF and which one have 18?

He's starting to build up a, a thing of which ones are different and where, and,

Cris: and, and

Reegs: a boole and decension, I

Cris: think.

and

this is where the guy actually says to him, this is something that I'll never sell.

I'll never sell for anything that anything can go. I'm never selling this book. Yeah. So see he makes a point the old boy.

Reegs: Yeah. But balk, when he relays that [00:13:00] to Balkan after being scared off outside Vargas's house by the the albino man again, or that's what he's called in the book anyway. I dunno what we'll call him in this.

The, the bodyguard, Leanna's bodyguard. And then the mysterious girl comes along and scares him off on his motorbike, didn't

Sidey: So,

yeah, I was just didn't think like, it? You know, in the, in the hierarchy of vehicles, car is gonna beat.

Reegs: motorbike. Motorcycle. Yeah. But she's not all, she seems, eh, so, so he'll go to bed and then wake up and the mysterious girl will take Johnny Depp back to Vargas's house.

Yeah. Where they'll find him D drowned in the

Sidey: he is, he is looking through the window. He like, knock on the door. And she's like, no, no, he's over there. And he looks around like, well, it's not, she's like, no, no. In the pond.

Reegs: And it's all like coy floating around

Cris: Yeah. Fish floating around him is very strange.

Sidey: Yeah. So he's been, he's been

Cris: And then they climb in, she open, she climbs in, opens the door, they go, he goes in and he finds. The book burned. Yeah. And, and some pages ripped off. Yeah. The engravings, like the important

Sidey: the, the engravings that would've [00:14:00] had LCF.

Reegs: Yeah. And he notices that, in fact, on the plane to Paris to meet the final copy owner, which is Baroness Kessler, who's like a fierce matriarch in a wheelchair.

And she's got another disability, like a missing arm as well.

Sidey: assume that, that there's more backstory to her in the book because Yeah, I think so because they keep it like, as a reveal. She, she points him out. She like, she orders him out with her,

Cris: wrong hand kind of

Sidey: her thing. What'd you call it? Like. No, it's not prosthetic, it's just missing a missing arm anyway.

Yeah. Oh yeah. And you're like, well that's interesting. Like, I wanna know more about that. No, nothing.

Reegs: Yeah. She's a great character, this one. She's devoted her whole life to like studying and writing about the devil. And this is when she tells him about the serpent society.

The satanic cult

Sidey: My agy days are over.

Reegs: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. But when she finds out who he is and who he's working for, she quickly sends him packing.

Sidey: she gets, she gets, she gets the right hump, doesn't she? Yeah. If I'd known you were working for him, I wouldn't have let you through the door. And we've seen her secretary slash bodyguard. She's quite a fucking [00:15:00] intimidating looking woman.

She's a big fucking unit on, on the front door. Yeah.

Yeah.

Reegs: So after being turfed out there, he's followed, I think by the

Cris: the blonde guy.

Yeah,

Reegs: the bodyguard. And there's like a little encounter down these steps where the girl suddenly like reveals kind of like ma matrix powers that she's glides down and then suddenly kung

Sidey: through.

We've seen the eye stuff. She's looked at him and the eyes have gone a bit green. Yeah. A few times. But only that, and this is like. Sort of quite outta the blue where she Yeah, she's kinda glides down and Trinity kicks. Yeah. Matey and fends him off

Cris: pretty much. Yeah.

Sidey: Yeah. And like, oh, okay.

Reegs: Yeah.

Cris: And, but, but this is the thing. Johnny Depp seems oblivious to the fact that she just flew in to rescue him.

And he just, oh, so what's your story? He doesn't really ask any anymore questions. He, he's just like accepting the fact that this woman just

flies

Sidey: up

Cris: standing up and, and, yeah, and there's, there's no, she's in the train. She's on the steps. She's everywhere. But

Sidey: yeah.

Cris: anyway then he calls Balkan, and he tells him, you need to go see the [00:16:00] copy again. And he's like, well, that woman's never gonna see me again. No, you need to find a way. How about lunch

Reegs: Mm-hmm.

Cris: And he waits for the bodyguard secretary to leave. And then he kind of goes in and he says, I've got something for you, or

Reegs: He seduces her with interest like he's said, oh, I can tell you something else about this.

It's like she's intrigued.

Sidey: Yeah. her

Reegs: lifelong

Sidey: curiosity cannot, cannot

Cris: you can see as, as a, as a main plot point here. He goes in and leaves the door open. Yeah. When he goes in.

Reegs: Yeah. The camera shows you

Cris: there's no secretary anymore and the

Sidey: It's just like, my daughter just will not close the fucking door

Reegs: well you should show her this movie and 'cause it will lead to her being horribly killed, won't it?

Sidey: Yeah. So he, she, she's the only one in the film where he, he, she's watching him as he studies book and he goes like, Ziggy. And she's like, not in my fucking library.

You're not. And you're like, finally someone said it. Finally.

Reegs: Exactly. Finally someone says it. Yeah. So he's again, concussed. Yeah. With a little neat special effect. And then when he comes too, he sees her like wheelchair

Sidey: window. [00:17:00] You hear it at first the window. And he looks up and he is like, bar's, like she's clearly

Reegs: yeah.

Yeah. But it's sort of, it's like half comical, half horrible

Sidey: It's f so it was really horrible. She's been strangled to death, but her face is all twisted and destroyed. Her tongue.

Cris: Yeah. Tongue out, eyes

Sidey: is out. She's, and

Cris: looks a bit like me when I was in hospital.

Sidey: Oh yeah. And then he kind of freaks out and, and she kind of like.

Because she's got her hand on the forward on the electric wheelchair and then she just careers off into the fire. 'cause someone set fire to her library and you're like, mate, come on. That was really fucking sloppy. And he can't get her out of there. He cannot also reach the book. Yeah, yeah. Which is also inflames on the table.

So it's gone really fucking badly. That

Reegs: one.

Cris: And he, and he, you can see him outside.

He runs out. You can see him outside and then you can see the flames.

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: with really 90 CGI.

You

Sidey: Well, he, he runs past the secretary as he goes down the stairs, he runs past countless people who've seen him come out this flaming building, and he just stands about 50 yards away watching it.

And surely someone would go, that guy

Reegs: was this guy,

Sidey: [00:18:00] guy?

But they don't do that. But he's I think, does he go back to the hotel and his copy's been nicked?

Reegs: yeah.

Cris: Behind the fridge, the behind the mini bar, and

Sidey: And it's clearly, it's clearly our albino. Man, friend who's, who's taken giving

Cris: No, the receptionist said your wife.

Sidey: that's

Reegs: Liana who's stolen it.

Cris: Yeah, the

Sidey: But they're, they're working together. There's, there's, you read the, have you read the book? No, because there's, there's a load of backstory about the, the concierge guy. Yeah, he's oh, is it? Yeah, he's, he's called Gruber in this in the book. I think he's got like a Hitler mustache and he is like, pretty much like, almost explicitly, like he's a former Nazi.

Okay. And, and they've had loads of dealings in the past and it's all a bit fucking shady. Like, and this is just like a helpful guy in, in the hotel

Cris: yeah. He knows how to find

Reegs: the nice concierge,

Cris: stay at the Royal Latino or something and

Sidey: When I was watching it though, I was like, man, I really don't take advantage of all the stuff you can do in a hotel.

You know, get the concierge to track people down for you and Yeah, just take calls on every fucking floor of

Cris: [00:19:00] he went to, to print, to print a book. He's like, oh, have you got a printer there in the middle of the night? The guy's asleep. Have you got a printer? I worked in hotels a long time. You are? If you're showing to reception and, and I'm asleep at the reception.

Yeah. And you're showing up. Oh, can I use your printer? No, mate. Fuck off. Go back to the room. You're not using any printer. I don't care who you are. Okay.

Sidey: Okay. Well, inconsistency and plot there. But yeah, now someone's got all of the books, I think, or all of, certainly all of the

Cris: Yeah. Yeah.

Sidey: And they, they've like. Super sleuth. It almost like instantaneously it's gotta be them. But they see them in the fo in the

Well

Reegs: they get a tip off from the concierge 'cause he's asked him, oh, where are they staying? Yeah. He's asked him to find out from his concierge buddies.

'cause they're a pretty distinctive couple,

Cris: yeah, yeah.

Women in their forties and the guy with a blonde hair and

Reegs: So Corso and the girl Ben end up going off. They get, she turns up with a sports car and they end up tracking. Sorry. Yeah, yeah. Back to the, her family's ancestral manner via some pretty crazy

Cris: Yeah.

Summer town.

Reegs: And yeah, exactly. Making a [00:20:00] big leap of faith about her maiden name and all this stuff. So, anyway, the, that's where the serpent Society, satanic cult.

Cris: Yeah. The Chateau.

Reegs: All of the rich and powerful

Sidey: All a bit eyes wide shut, isn't it?

Reegs: Yeah. And they're all there to do a ritual, basically using Balkans, but, and there's some shenanigans first where they basically get instantly discovered, don't they?

Well,

Cris: she, they go straight to her room. You can see her getting naked Yeah. And then getting the robe on the leather looking robe and the chain. Yeah. And then they just, he breaks the window and just barges into the room.

Reegs: Yeah. So they're discovered and taken away. It's Liana, isn't

Sidey: Yeah, it's now they're gonna do this thing, but the Barrs has already said that these people are just like, fuck. It's really, they're just there for the shagging and to feel important, but there's not, they're not doing anything.

Reegs: debauchery and nothing else. Like

Sidey: for the laws. They're not like actually summoning demons or anything like that. It's just not like it used to be. Back in the good old,

Reegs: in

the good old days.

Yeah.

Sidey: They're, so they're there. And when they do get discovered, and [00:21:00] Balkan's gonna come in and do some stuff, which we'll get to.

But when you see people leaving there's this one w well, one woman that leaves, she's just completely naked. Okay. So the robes are off and they're just gonna start shagging,

Reegs: It was just, yeah, they're ready to go. But on the way down, the bodyguard that's taken him down suddenly, Corso like, turns me.

Does he take his shoe off and beat him with it? Yeah. So he beats this guy to death, which the girl, the mysterious girl, really gets her going for that. So they then can. Go undercover. Essentially they grab some robes and go undercover in the ritual as it starts.

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: And then, yeah, Balkan comes and he's like, you

Reegs: well, I knew this bit was coming and I knew the whole movie was worth it for this bit.

If, even if you didn't like the movie because Balkan shows up.

Sidey: Yeah. It calls 'em all Twas amateur.

Reegs: He just calls them out for just what they are. Exactly. It's, it's all a

Sidey: A bunch of, bunch of amateurs

Reegs: Yeah. He's actually there to, to summon Satan and, and bring him into this world through the nine gates represented through the tarot cards, the different engravings in the books.

The [00:22:00] three books.

Sidey: Yeah. Yeah. So he does, he kills Liana.

Reegs: Yeah. He doesn't just kill her. There's like a strangulation and then she gets impaled on her own necklace. Pentagram. Yeah.

Sidey: That's a nice touch. He's done that. He takes the stuff and hightails it off to be chased by Johnny Depp.

Yeah. Who takes the rolls? Rolls Royce, I should say, which when it becomes an off road

Reegs: chase.

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: He, it doesn't work. Yeah.

Sidey: work. He gets stuck in a puddle. Yeah.

Reegs: he does. Yeah.

Cris: And then he goes to the some cafe in the village and he, he all he has from the Baroness is the postcard of the, that little rundown Gro Gro castle.

Pretty much.

Reegs: Yeah.

He found the postcard in her copy of the

Cris: of the book.

Reegs: book, yeah. And he's also connected it later to an engraving that's in the book as well. So he, he asks them, doesn't he ask them locally and they point it out in his map.

So off he goes towards the

Cris: on the, on a lorry with logs and they, and then he just kinda shows up at the [00:23:00] run.

Like this ruined

Sidey: kind of thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cris: Yeah. And that's where he finds Boris.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: Doing his thing.

Reegs: got all the nine engravings out. He's ready to open a, a portal to hell. There's a beef brief struggle over a gun, which ends up with corso falling through the floorboard and sort of

Cris: getting stuck in the

Sidey: It's just like wedged in the floorboards, just like being able to see what's going on, but he just can't. You know, get out there and yeah, Boris is gonna do his thing. He does the circle. He is got the, the, these paper drawings just sort of put out in front of him. Seems a bit crude to me. And he is reciting some incantation and then he sets this it's, it is just a circle of fire, isn't it?

That he

Reegs: and he's talking a load of self-aggrandizing bullshit about how lucky he is to marvel at witnessing what he's gonna witness and the amazing things I'm gonna do and this, that, and the other.

Sidey: And he is mega chf, so he puts his hands in the flames. Yeah. To illustrate that he is now immortal and

Reegs: he's capable of any feat of mind or body. He says

Sidey: yeah, at this point it's probably just like walking on hot coals 'cause [00:24:00] Corso. Is that his name? Yeah. Corso is just like, oh fuck yeah, maybe he is now somehow.

Cris: turning into

Sidey: and he goes, well you need to fucking show me a bit more. Yeah. So he

Reegs: you really are, go on, really

Sidey: so he gets the can of role. I say it super un netted. Yeah.

Douses himself with that and then sets Farge himself and for about five seconds

Reegs: he laughs at

Sidey: he's super into it.

Reegs: nothing. Nothing at all.

Sidey: then he does start to feel something and he realizes he. Fucked it right in the ear. Yeah. And he just like, it's on fun.

Reegs: he's just thrashing and screaming. And Corso does then free himself and puts the guy out of his misery with a, a bullet

Sidey: It's just a nice me kill. Yeah. And he goes outside and the girl is like, turns off again.

Reegs: he gets in the car and she's clearly not in the car.

Right? The camera shows you that. And then he like sits back in his seat and then she's in the

Sidey: in the car,

Cris: Yeah.

Reegs: to it in the seat behind him. And then,

Sidey: hey, fuck,

Reegs: they

fuck while the, the castle

Cris: are Yeah. It's amazing.

Reegs: and she's looking at him, all her faces kind of twisting up [00:25:00] and all sorts of shit

Sidey: to point the fact that we see her boobs, but we don't see any dick.

Reegs: No. No. So,

Sidey: And any briefly boobs.

They have sex. She looks, she's like going fucking wild.

Not like, 'cause of the sex. Her face is just like

Reegs: contorting and Yeah.

Sidey: There's all sorts of crazy shit going on there. And then they just drive off afterwards. They're pretty happy with that. And it's like, don't get it. Like what happened? She said, well, one of those was a fake. Yeah. One of those. Drawings, one of the pages was a fake,

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: so it would've worked if it weren't for the fake.

So it goes

Reegs: that sends Deb back to the the, the brothers because they had, I don't, I can't remember exactly how he works it out, but they had

Cris: described, she tells him,

She tells him something that they said,

In, in the way they said it. It's like the, I can't remember the brother's name, but remember something that he, she does the way she says it. It basically takes him back to exactly what they said.

Reegs: Yeah. The Sun Brothers.

Cris: Yeah. And, and he goes there [00:26:00]

Sidey: Which, no, she leaves, she leaves the thing on the car. Windscreen.

Reegs: Yeah. Oh yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

Sidey: the garage and says, sun Brothers bros. So he goes back there.

They've sold up, they've to fuck off outta town, but the removals may have been, and they move a big, big fucking Chester of drawers and something falls down.

Reegs: sort of Forrest Gumps. Its way off the top of the bookcase.

Yeah.

Sidey: and it's the missing engraving missing page. So he now has all nine. He looks at it, it is like, oh, it's like.

It's the girl is in the, is in the picture. Yeah. Being all horny.

Reegs: She's on a snake, isn't she? And she's cradling a baby.

His, and they've just fucked, obviously. So now, yeah. So then, you know, the last shot of the movie really

Sidey: He's compelled to go back towards

Reegs: the castle and going towards a bright white

Sidey: on that castle, by the way.

Reegs: Yeah, well it's obviously Satan has now been, you

Cris: and he walks through the the gate.

Reegs: Yeah,

Sidey: it

just, it just goes bright and he is straight in there.

Cris: Yeah.

Sidey: be compelled to go there if you had

Reegs: it's, you know, he's wrestled with monsters now, he's become [00:27:00] one, or was he unwittingly Satan himself? There's many clues along the way that they

Sidey: well, when he murdered that guy with the shoe, like that was a bit outta

Reegs: Well, there's a thing about Satan not knowing who he is and having to be awakened and guided through it all.

That's one of the

Cris: and also she does say after, either before or after they have sex, like you are, you are turning into one.

Yeah, you are. You know, you are more into like, like Balkan. So you are one of, one of them. You are the same kind of thing. So,

Reegs: Mm-hmm.

Sidey: So he's the devil. Do you

Reegs: Maybe. I mean, that's one theory.

I think there's, there's lots of different

it? Yeah.

Sidey: Do you wanna know about the bag that he was carrying the whole way through the

movie?

Cris: That must have been so uncomfortable.

Sidey: Well, it is it's a small bag carried by French soldiers around 1935. It was used to carry ammunition and other small items called a moset, MLE 35.

Cris: Okay. Nice.

Reegs: nice,

Sidey: There you go. Yeah,

Reegs: Yeah, I want one. Yeah, it's good. It's, it's got a very slow language pace and it does have, even though this movie was released in 1999, it feels and looks like a [00:28:00] seventies and also Polanski really, honestly, really is a piece of shit. And I think Johnny Depp probably is as well, isn't he really?

It's, I know it's difficult to say, but

Sidey: Well,

Polanski, I def we can say without any shadow of doubt is definitely a piece of shit. Yeah. Also in this film, he has the mystery girl read is shown reading the book, how to Make Friends and

Reegs: Influence People. Yeah.

Sidey: Which was read by Charles Manson.

Reegs: Oh, right.

Sidey: Who murdered. Yeah,

Reegs: Yeah. His wife. His wife

Misses. Yeah, Which

Sidey: yeah, yeah. Which is like, what the fuck?

Reegs: Yeah. That's weird, isn't it?

Sidey: Yeah. I mean, that

Cris: he's very weird,

Reegs: He is a weird guy. Did you like this movie though? I figured this is not one. I liked it. Did you like it? Yeah.

Cris: I quite liked, and look, I don't want to get into detail because it is the same like Michael Jackson.

It's the same like, you know, I don't, I didn't really like r Kelly's music that much, but same like all these dicks that are, you know,

Reegs: You got separate art

Cris: Yeah. They're, they're weird and they've done things or they haven't done things or whatever. It's the same with Weinstein. He, I enjoyed a lot of the movies that he produced or whatever.

I don't, I don't think he's.[00:29:00]

Amazing. Or

he's a nice guy or, oh, I, so, I feel so sorry for him. No, but at the same time, I can separate that and I can be like, well, even Johnny Depp, okay, maybe he did things, maybe he didn't, I, I don't know if I'm gonna watch it. I'm gonna watch it and judge on what I see on the screen.

Not because, except for Will Smith. Will Smith is

Reegs: But this one, it is got like a bit of a European flavor, hasn't it?

Cris: and, and I do, you know what, I quite, I quite, the only thing I thought was really, really strange was. The fact that out of all this thing, everything happens in Europe. Everything is so European.

Reegs: Mm-hmm. Well, he's not allowed

Sidey: can't go to

Reegs: can't go to, he can't go to America. So the, if they wanted to make a movie, they had to, you know, even the New York shots. Yeah, yeah,

Sidey: yeah, yeah, yeah. For, for a long, long time has been warrant

Reegs: the 1977, I think he's been out of

Cris: No, no. I mean, Johnny Depp, not Polanski.

Reegs: Well,

Sidey: can't, Polanski can't go to America. He'll be arrested immediately.

Cris: Right. Okay. Anyway for me, the fact was that he can't, anyway he can or he can't. They have an American car as the, like the most fancy [00:30:00] car in the thing, the red one.

Reegs: I just said,

Sidey: I think, no, I think it was a TVR, which

Cris: It's a viper,

Sidey: Was it? I thought it was A-T-V-R-I-I. Do you look it up. Okay. Okay, fine.

Cris: It's a Viper something.

Viper Chrysler vi.

Reegs: car.

Sidey: Oh, actually it was an American couple that got outta the car, wasn't it? Yeah, it

Cris: I dunno. But in Paris it's like, fucking, who, who do you think has an American car out of all that? Anyway, that was the only thing. I liked the movie though. I liked it. It was good enough. It was long enough. I kept, I kept being confused by the girl though.

Mm. As in I was just like, well, what is, what the fuck is the point of this woman

Reegs: Yeah. There's something about, maybe she's like a fallen angel to kind of guide him through

Cris: I kind of get that, but obviously throughout

Reegs: weird though, wasn't it?

Cris: is like, well, okay, all she does is until they had sex. And then I'm a bit like, okay, well maybe there's something there, whatever, but oh, she can fly.

She's always there. He doesn't question too much because

Reegs: no, he sort of sleepwalk through the events of the movie. He's pushed around and, yeah, exactly. That's why I think it is [00:31:00] interesting because like his only motivation really is money and then eventually ends up bringing in the devil

Sidey: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. There's some stuff that like, it's totally dopey this movie. I really liked it.

Reegs: Did you? Yeah.

Sidey: I enjoyed it.

There's like stupid shit, like when they're in a car, it looks so fake to me. The background that really fake. And when she just all of a sudden you never see her fly, she just glides and she, she kind of can, can. Fall slowly. That was like, oh wow. Okay. And other bits, I just thought a bit silly, but I just really liked it.

Reegs: I really liked Kessler, baros, Kessler, and then just Balkan at the end. That act of hubris as he burns himself. Like it's just amazing. It's just absolutely brilliant.

Sidey: Yeah. Strong recommend for me.

Cris: Yeah, it was, yeah, it was good. I, I enjoyed it. It was, I, I didn't know what to expect going in because

Sidey: No.

Did I,

Cris: the only thing I I, I was like 1999 and I was, oh, it's called Johnny Depp, but then when I've seen I was Roman Pelke. Okay, this is gonna be weird, number one. And then I've seen that, you know, when it kind of shows at the beginning with the doors and it says Johnny Depp, and then it was a list of [00:32:00] actors that I've heard of, but.

none

of them was in really anything that big or you know, whereas Johnny Depp has done a lot of big movies, but everyone else was just a bit me. I was just thinking, is this what's going on? What's happening

Reegs: have the cast. Here is who I, I've

Sidey: the names.

Well, Frank Gel as Boris.

Reegs: was great.

Sidey: Most other people, a lot of people would, just wouldn't really

Cris: Yeah. But they, that's what I mean. The, the, the Swedish actress, the one that's Lydia

Reegs: Oh, James Russo is in it, and Lena Onin, or

Cris: Yeah. But, but that's what I mean. They, they're, they're good actors, but they're not in,

they're not

like box office.

Like, like Johnny, Johnny Deb's been

Sidey: know the box office? Go on. Budget was 38 million us, which

Reegs: Ooh, that's a

Sidey: I'd imagine a lot of that went to Johnny De. 'cause I'm not seeing a lot of 38 million on the screen there.

Reegs: No

Cris: no.

Sidey: particularly, no. It doesn't look cheap or anything, but

Cris: No, but

Sidey: for 99, 9 30 8 million. Anyway,

Reegs: not a lot. It's not like a big special effects, heavy movie. Apart from that sequence with Langella at

Sidey: Yeah. And it made [00:33:00] 58. So I'd imagine it probably broke even ish. Okay. With marketing

Cris: It was good though. I, I, I enjoyed it. There's the, if you want an easy Prime movie that you put on and you

kind

of watch and it has some silly bits, has some funny bits.

It, it's a bit intriguing. You don't really get an answer to all your questions at the end. At least I didn't, but it's still, I'm still happy. Yeah,

Reegs: Yeah, yeah. Right. But yeah, I agree with basically everything Chris said is first time on the pod, let's say that slow. It definitely a kind of slow burn thriller has this language pace and all this stuff.

Like you say, a bit of ambiguity then lots of stuff to read into it and symbolism. Yeah, it is good.

Sidey: Nice, strong recommend.