The Tenant

CinemaSerf7/10

Nov 26, 2024

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This is probably my favourite Roman Polanski film, as he takes centre stage playing the timid "Trelkovsky". He is looking for an apartment to rent in Paris and despite the rather frosty reception from concierge (Shelley Winters), the inquisition from his landlord "Zy" (Melvyn Douglas) and the fact that it's got no bathroom he decides to live there. He knows from the start that the previous occupant tried to kill herself by jumping from the window, and that she is still clinging on in hospital, so he goes to visit her and encounters her pal "Stella" (Isabelle Adjani). She's a bit of a live wire and that doesn't sit well in his new lodgings where a library-like atmosphere is actively encouraged. Indeed, before long he begins to feel that his neighbours are engaged in a plot to force him out, or even worse. He's hearing noises, voices; he's imagining things. Or is he? His flat is broken into; he fears that someone is going to try and kill him as he sleeps. In short, paranoia is taking a firm hold of this man. What also doesn't help is the fact that he is becoming increasingly obsessed with the (now deceased) previous occupant, and that leads to significant changes to his frequently erratic behaviour too. Is all of this real or is he just losing the plot? Polanski delivers well here, as does Adjani but it's really the whole concept that makes this interesting. It reminded me a little of "Rosemary's Baby". Not in any Satanic fashion, but in the way the claustrophobia of his dwelling with animosity on all sides; his own personality instinctively weak, susceptible and all in the face of a danger that might be real, or then again... It has some effective menacing elements of a psychological conspiracy thriller to it that I though worked really quite well and the two hours flew by as his character really does start to get under your skin.