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The
Tenant
(1976)
Le
Locataire
The influences of Alfred Hitchcock and Franz
Kafka, as well as Polanski’s own back-catalogue, particularly Repulsion (1965)
and Rosemary’s Baby (1968), hang over this chilling
psychological thriller.
Polanski himself stars as Trelkovsky, a mild-mannered Polish ex-patriot, living in Paris, who works as a file clerk in an office. He rents an apartment in a run-down building and, shortly after moving in, learns that the previous occupant of the apartment had killed herself by jumping out of the window. Trelkovsky is interested in the story, and especially in the previous tenant’s attractive friend Stella (Isabelle Adjani). As time goes on, he becomes increasingly obsessed with the dead woman, even to the extent of buying a wig and make-up and dressing in the dead woman’s old clothes, and also develops a severe paranoia about his sinister fellow tenants, who constantly complain about him and the noise he makes.
The film is set mostly in small, run-down apartments and corridors, which create a real feeling of claustrophobia. Events move at a slow pace, which may try the patience of some viewers, but once you get used to it, it really works well for the film. In the world of this movie, everything has a dark and weird side to it. In one memorable scene Polanski’s character is calming a hysterical man in a pub, who believes that the whole world is against him. As Polanski tries to calm him down and assure him that not everyone could be against him, a drunk man enters the pub and orders drinks for everyone, before pointing at the hysterical man and hissing, “Except him!”
The film is also an interesting statement element on racial prejudice and xenophobia. It hints that the reason why Trelkovsky’s neighbours hate him so much is more because he’s a foreigner than anything else.
The main flaw in the film is the terrible English-language dubbing. I don’t know in what language the film was actually made, but the English language doesn’t work for an entirely French-set film, and dubbing never works, ever.
Another flaw is the way the film really seems to go over the top towards the end. The sight of Roman Polanski in full drag is more funny than anything else.
Despite the flaws, this remains a startling, scary, dark and often darkly funny exploration of urban paranoia.
-Robert
Foster
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All contents ©
2004-2009 Thoughtsonfilm.com |
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Director:
Roman
Polanski
Writer: Gérard
Brach, Roman Polanski, Roland Topor
Starring: Roman
Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas, Jo Van Fleet, Bernard
Fresson, Shelley Winters
Distributor: Paramount
Pictures
Runtime: 125
min
Rating: R
Release Date: June
11, 1976
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