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The proximity to Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut has been noted, the closer affinity is to Robbe-Grillet's La Belle Captive. Occultism and bibliophilia are the braided concerns, thus the MacGuffin of a 17th-century tome "reputed to have been written by Satan himself." Three surviving copies are coveted by the moneyed collector (Frank Langella), the ruthless "book detective" (Johnny Depp) is on the case. The previous owner dangles from a chandelier, his widow (Lena Olin) meets the seeker and proves she's unarmed by flashing her garter belt and stockings. "This has happened somewhere before." "I know. In the movies." The eternal lure of forbidden knowledge as "a kind of satanic riddle," very pleasing, the Roman Polanski sense of evil mischief at its most dapper. Jack Taylor is given a fiddle amid dusty manuscripts and suddenly Jesús Franco's old leading man exudes ruined gravitas, Barbara Jefford as the paralytic baroness adds a protruding tongue to her Miss Havisham demise. "Have you studied the engravings?" A matter of futile texts and valuable images, or of scénario and mise en scène, if you will, a theory of art restoration. Polanski echoes throughout, Rosemary's Baby mainly but also The Fearless Vampire Killers (digital twins done up like Professor Abronsius) and Chinatown (garden pond drowning) and even Tess (the staring stag in the woods gets a canine replacement). Witchy covens ain't what they used to be, "a social club for bored millionaires and celebrities" and no match for the authentic necromancer who strides in shouting "mumbo jumbo!" The guardian angel (Emmanuelle Seigner) packs a surprise karate kick, the climactic conflagration is prefaced by a rainbow-capped view of the Puivert landscape from the back of a sheep truck. "Even Hell has its heroes, señor." The Ghost Writer is a further refinement. Cinematography by Darius Khondji. With James Russo, Allen Garfield, Willy Holt, and José López Rodero.
--- Fernando F. Croce |