Secret Museums feels a little like an annotation to The Ninth Gate. It begins with private collectors of erotica, most of whom are for good reason quite secretive about their collections-as one notes in the film, people were imprisoned or killed for creating these works, which are still not for the prudish. But the film then broadens out to public collections, most notably the Gabinetto Segreto in Naples, established to house erotica from Pompeii. It is no longer secret, but it was not until 1989 that it was opened to women, and herein lies the essential argument of the film: 'A secret museum (and the British Museum, the National Library of France, and the Vatican all have one) is not a democratic institution.' Furthermore, there is a certain irony in controlling access to such material when three clicks of a mouse can lead to websites exhibiting sadism that surpasses anything these books hold.

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