The Tenant (1976)

After the triumph of Chinatown, Roman Polanski's The Tenant marked an unsettling return to the horrifying psychodrama of Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby. As in those previous films, Polanski explores a descent into madness with subtle, deliberate pacing and keen attention to accumulating details. Cannily casting himself in the title role, Polanski plays the mild-mannered occupant of a Parisian flat previously rented by a woman who committed suicide by leaping from her upper-floor balcony. The woman's leftover belongings and the harsh attitudes of disapproving neighbors (including Melvin Douglas and Shelley Winters) begin to grate on the new tenant's psyche; his paranoia shifts from simmering anxiety to full-blown psychosis, until fate itself seems to run in a complete, tragically tormenting circle. Polanski masters the material as only he could, and despite some critical drubbing at the time of its release, The Tenant has earned a place among Polanski's finest films. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

Not Sure if It's a Suspense or a Spoof of One, but It Succeeds at Neither.

Roman Polanski and Gerard Brach, the screenwriting team behind Polanski's 1965 apartment house horror film "Repulsion", had less success in adapting Roland Topor's novel "Le locataire chimérique" for the screen. It's difficult to say if "The Tenant" is trying to be a suspense or an absurdist parody of a suspense, but it hardly matters, as the film is neither scary nor funny. I can say with certainty is that it is too long. It feels like the story has been forcibly stretched. Ironically, the premise is essentially the same as in "Repulsion": A tenant descends into schizophrenic madness amid odd neighbors and eerie production design, alone in his apartment.

A Parisian bachelor named Mr. Trelkovsky (Roman Polanski) takes a dingy 2-room apartment in an old building, whose crotchety concierge (Shelley Winters) explains, "The previous tenant threw herself out of the window." His visits that former tenant, Simone, in the hospital, where he meets her friend Stella (Isabelle Adjani). But Trelkovsky, surrounded by Simone's belongings, can't get her suicide out of his mind. He sees people standing for hours in the toilet opposite his apartment. He is exasperated by the accusations of the building owner and the intrigues of his neighbors. Even Stella's kindness can't dispel his mounting paranoia.

The only good thing I can say about "The Tenant" is that Polanski's Trelkovsky seems authentically unassuming up to a point: He's genuinely pleased to find an apartment, embarrassed by his annoying co-workers, and really trying to be a nice guy. But nothing is interesting beyond that. His hallucinations and obsessions are more comic than frightening, but not enough to be entertaining, and his suffering inspires no empathy. To be clear, all dialogue is in English, which substitutes for French, presumably to make the film more commercial. The Paramount 2003 DVD includes a theatrical trailer (1 min). Subtitles are available in English. Dubbing available in French. June 11, 2008

I think I'm pregnant!

The Tenant is without doubt, Polanski's best film ever...in my opinion! I love the slow burning paranoia and depth of madness that the main character spirals into.
Was this madness already in him or was he driven to madness by those nieghbours!
I think it is the poetry of madness.
Roman Polanski does brilliant acting, I actually think he was born for the part.
When he transforms completly into Simone you believe it totally. That classic line that he/she says as she looks into the mirror, "I think I am pregnant!" is so funny and so sad that it stays in your mind forever. Yes Roman Polanski is pregnant, with the madness of the manson murder of his pregnant wife years earlier. I feel that the Tenant is his alienation working its way onto screen and poked into our own minds eye. April 9, 2008

Would have been decent, except for the ending

This movie has some creepy aspects to it and the sound combined with the low-lighting is excellent, but the ending is terrible. It threw the paranoia/suspense into the toilet by making the story "come full circle".
The movie IS slow, so it requires some patience, but if you've seen other Polanski movies, then this should be no surprise. There are some unexplained parts, one of the main ones being the tooth, but rather than letting it be irritating just run with it.
My favorite part were the people standing in the bathroom window, especially when he goes to investigate and looks out that same window!

I suggest watching it if you have nothing better to do and don't have too high of expectations. January 25, 2008

Artsy to a fault

There are two types of people that don't like this movie: Those that don't understand it (I pity those) and those like me that think the movie was just a little too strange for their liking. I understand the theme of paranoia ingrained in the movie, I understand that he was so nervous about people accepting him, that his mind shattered and he dressed up as the woman that used to live there. You see the contrast between him and "Real" men in the movie. But at the same time, the ending was too much, especially with him screaming at seeing "Himself" at the end, it just was too out there. And the subtle hints of his paranoia, really hid any terror behind this film. I enjoy a strange and slow flick, I loved the ninth gate. This just wasn't my thing. November 2, 2007

Appreciation comes only when viewed as a psycology thriller

I am not a fan of the genre, but I think most viewers did not approach the film "The Tenant" for truly what it is: a psychological thriller. Trelkovsky (Roman Polanski) suffers from schizophrenic psychosis and yearns to be a female. Simone is his Id and he turns into Simone at night where he goes to the bar next door and buys Marlboro cigarettes and hot chocolate, etc. In the day, he buys men's cigarettes (Gaulloise) and drinks dark coffee. The moment when he was standing with Stella early in the film and we get to see Simone's mouth is the moment when the director of the movie chooses to tell us what happened. This is the right interepretation: Simone and Roman Polanski are one and the same. People will enjoy the movie more when they see it this way and understand it as a double personality. Polanski playing as Simone did not commit the second suicide in the last scene within minutes after the first attempt, but rather there was a period of a few days that repairmen came and fixed the glass till a second suicide was attempted. Hence the tenants said "not again". Another detail is that Stella knows Simone and also knows Roman Polanski the man, she is a friend to both of them but she does not know they are the same person, till Roman Polanski gets to believe that she is "conspiring" against him with the other tenants and the landlord. Another hint is that viewers should accept that there is time-jumping in the film. Polanski as Simone now all bandaged and in the hospital is looking at Stella and Polanski the man in the last scene. It is really the same scene as in the beginning of the movie, only we see it for what it is, a schezophrenic character: Freud would love this movie!! October 28, 2007

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