I watched this movie for the first time this weekend. I understood everything and even guessed who the girl really was almost as soon as she first appeared. When her and Johnny Depp had sex it cinched it. No surprises. Everything just sort of fell into place.
But then. . .
it. . .
just. . .
ended.
WTF?
The movie’s based on a quite excellent book called The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte. But, unfortunately, Polanski took out a lot of the cool subplots, like the parallels between Corso’s quest and the Three Musketeers (trust me, it worked in the novel).
I liked the film, even though I probably shouldn’t have. But, basically, the ending was him embracing the devil, after spending two hours searching for it.
And, damn, I’m glad the devil looks like her. 
He went through the ninth gate. I assumed you’re supposed to use your imagination as what happens after that. Some kinf of hedonistic paradise/hell?
Thanks Montfort, I’ll have to check out the book.
I have found, though this is a gross generalization, that in many European directors, an open ending is preferred to your traditional Hollywood ending. Some, like this one, are more open than others. It all depends on the writer and director. I can think of quite a few off the top of my head, actually. Anyway, it’s just a different type of ending.
I think Polanski knew that any huge, cgi devil that he could create would have been anti-climatic, so he chose to leave it in the mind of the audience. He could have gone down into Hell and filmed Lucifer himself, and you still probably wouldn’t have been that impressed. I know I wouldn’t have.
I didn’t think it was the greatest movie, but the ending fit, somehow.
It was a little too open for me. I was under the obviously mistaken impression that Johnny Depp didn’t want the Ninth Gate opened, but at the end, I guess I was wrong. I was also a little cloudy on what exactly happens when he enters the Ninth Gate. Godlike powers? Does he enter some kind of hell, or does he get powers and stay here? Does this mean that he can change earth and reality for everyone? If so, I didn’t know enough about his personality to figure out what he would do with his new found powers.
I just didn’t get it.
Some advice then, lola. Don’t rent too many European films, since they’re generally very open in their endings and provoke thought and discussion about “what happens next”. The sequel is in your mind, and not on the screen next summer.
One more thing. . . .
Why did the devil want Johnny Depp to figure out the puzzle? Why was he (she) there to help him?
Good question. I’m not sure, but I’d guess that maybe it was a case of her wanting him to discover her powers, in that “I’m so cool but no one knows how cool I am unless I show it off to them” way.
Maybe the devil needed a consort and decided that he was her man?
I dunno. There’s a commentary track by Polanski on the DVD, but I haven’t seen it yet. Maybe he explains it there? The novel offers no insight into the ending, since it ends differently.
(Novel spoiler: In the novel, the girl isn’t the devil, but rather mysterious nonetheless. So, the novel ends with the scene with the book collector summoning the devil and disappearing into the earth with it.)
I’ve seen the commentary track, and no he doesn’t explain anything really, although he says the girl is the devil or some demon. The ending is clear - he enters the Ninth Gate. Unless I am imagining things, you can even see the devil in the final shot, in the window. What happens then? Obviously whatever happens is beyond the scope of the movie - any movie to depict.
Polanski says on the commentary that they had trouble figuring out what the ending should be. Of all the alternatives they could think of, the one they chose was best. I tend to agree - I can’t think of any other satisfactory ending.
I wasn’t expecting an ending with all the fancy bells and whistles, but I thought there would at least be an explanation of why Depp’s character was chosen and for what purpose.
There just seemed to be something missing.