Steve-Calvert.co.uk
Steve-Calvert.co.uk
A Passion For Horror
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Trailer available at the bottom of this page
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The first thing I have got to say about Roman Polanski's The Tenant is that it is a damn good film. The second thing is that it is a damn confusing film. After I had finished watching it, I was forced to sit and think, and try to decide if it is the story of man who is slowly losing his mind or if something more sinister was going on. Even now I am still not sure which is the correct answer. It works both ways, and different viewers will probably form different opinions about it. Roman Polanski not only directed The Tenant, he also took the starring role of Mr Trelkovsky. Trelkovsky is a business man who rents an apartment in Paris. The apartment is at the very top of the building and the former tenant, a girl called Simone, jumped from the room's window, through a glass awning, and to the street below. When the concierge shows Trelkovsky around the apartment she seems quite unmoved as she tells him all about the fate of its former tenant, even guiding him to the window to shows him the hole made in the awning by Simone's body. It's a long way down and Trelkovsy looks nervous enough as he leans out of the window, even without the added help of the concierge's hand as she persists in pushing on his back in an attempt to help him to get a better look. When Trelkovsky moves into to the apartment he has a few friends over for a housewarming party and upsets his neighbours in the process. His neighbours are a rather awful bunch and the equally awful landlord, Monsieur Zy, hints to Trelkovsky that Simone used to wear carpet slippers after 10 o'clock. After all the complaints Trelkovsky gets a little paranoid about making any noise, and it is almost painful to watch his efforts as he tries to move furniture around without making any noise. It is when Trelkovsky moves the wardrobe, which still contains a lot of Simon's clothes, that he finds something rather strange. There is a hole in the wall with a piece of cotton wool inside. Hidden behind the cotton wool he finds a tooth. Trelkovsky looks a little disgusted as he regards his find and then, for some reason, replaces it in the wall. Trelkovsky is not the only person to suffer at the hands of the other tenants. There is an old woman and her crippled daughter who also seems to be victimized, and the tenants get up a petition to get her out. Trelkovsky is the only person who refuses to sign, earning him further disdain from his neighbours. Before the old woman leaves the building she knocks on Trelkovsky's door in the middle of the night. She has been a busy girl and has left some excrement outside of every single door. Except for his, because he has been kind to her. "But they'll blame me," says Trelkovsky and when she has gone he scoops up some of the excrement and places it outside his door. This is rather an amusing, if disgusting, scene and is only one of many instances where humour comes into play. Trelkovsky's main problem is that he begins to feel that the other tenants are trying to turn him into Simone and will force him to kill himself. In the cafe they insist on giving him hot chocolate because that was what Simone always drank. When he asks for cigarettes they only ever seem to have Marlboro, which was what Simone smoked. The concierge even gives him the dead girl's mail. "But this isn't for me," He protests, only to have the door slammed in his face. When the glass awning is finally repaired Trelkovsky looks down and worries that they are getting it ready for him. The Tenant ends with an impact and is quite disturbing, to say the least. It is one of those films that once you've seen, like it or loathe it, you will never forget it.
Wikipedia has an interesting article about The Tenant which
lists several popular theories about what is actually happening in the
film. Click HERE to read it. Roman Polanski ...
Trelkovsky
Soundtrack: Mono Run Time 120 mins (approx) Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Colour Subtitles available in: English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish Special Features: Theatrical Trailer Watch The Trailer This text will be replaced
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