The Tenant
Directed by Roman Polanski
Music by Phillippe Sarde

Apartment For Rent
Quiet Bldg. Furnished. 2 Rooms.
Previous Tenant committed Suicide

Cast
Roman Polanski
Isabelle Adjani
Shelley Winters
Melvyn Douglas
Jo Van Fleet

Based on the novel by Roland Topor, this film is a complex and unnerving study of a young mans descent into insanity.

The story concerns a nervous and meticulous young man, Monsieur Trelkovsky, a European Immigrant who desperately desires to rent an apartment in Paris. He finally locates one, where he is told that the previous occupant, a young shop girl, attempted to commit suicide by jumping from the window.

Trelkovsky is upset and feels uneasy, perhaps even guilty in agreeing to rent the apartment. He decides to visit the girl in hospital but see her eyes only, staring at him, through bandages that appear to cover her whole body, she utters a disturbing scream when she focuses her attention on him. He meets her friend, Stella, played by Isabelle Adjani, they spend the afternoon in the Cinema groping each other in the darkness almost to escape the oppressive atmosphere of the Hospital.

Soon after moving into the apartment, the neighbours complain constantly about Trelkovsky causing a disturbance, yet he is a very quiet man. The complaints become intolerable to him and he begins to dread meeting the other tenants on the stairs leading to his room, he creeps around his apartment like a prisoner.

He feels the staring; sinister, creepy eyes of the other occupants watching him as if he was on a stage in a spot light. He comes to the conclusion that the other tenants were responsible for the young woman's suicide attempt, although no substantial evidence is provided. It is clear however that he is being driven mad by something in the building, the other tenants are suitably nightmarish, the kind of people that would drive you to drink or pills within a week. The room that he lives in is claustrophobic and depressing. Is it the room causing his madness? Are the other Tenants in fact Satanists?

He becomes obsessed about the previous occupant, now dead, and begins take on many of her characteristics finally dressing in women's clothing and wearing make up and a wig.

The film has themes reminiscent of Kafka's writing flowing through it; it also focuses on the subject of insanity and alienation with suspense building skilfully through every scene. It is a bizarre, surreal, psychological drama. The genius of this film is not in the script or the story but the mood and ambience it creates on the screen, there is an intense feeling of anxiety and dread, which is most affecting and difficult to put into words.

This film is not available on DVD as yet, however you can obtain a video copy through the auctions at Amazon.com.

© 2002 Minadream.com