Reviews
Other
THE TENANT
This Roman Polanski thriller approaches greatness and, but for some questionable artistic choices, nearly achieves it. As it is, THE TENANT is a powerfully eccentric study of paranoia and obsession shot through with tension, claustrophobia and a jolting streak of black humor.
The Package
Roman Polanski’s THE TENANT was adapted from a 1964 novel by the French
surrealist Roland Topor (who co-founded the infamous “Panic” movement with
Alejandro Jodorowski and
Fernando Arrabal and designed the sci
fi animation classic FANTASTIC PLANET) and photographed by the great
Sven Nykvist (Ingmar Bergman’s cinematographer of choice). It was, alas, a box
office failure and suffered a decidedly hostile reception at the 1976 Cannes
Film Festival, where it was written off as a poor attempt at aping the style and
content of ROSEMARY’S BABY, one of Polanski’s most successful films. The
failure of THE TENANT seems to have scarred Polanski irretrievably, as he’s come
to regard it as a failed experiment in genre mixing. In his own words: “The
picture labors under an unacceptable change of mood halfway through…a tragedy
must remain a tragedy; a comedy that turns into a drama almost always fails.”
In fact THE TENANT, while undeniably flawed, remains one of Polanski’s more
interesting films. Its mix of humor and horror was unprecedented at the time
and, contrary to Polanski’s subsequent views, works quite well for the most
part. Furthermore, the formula pioneered in THE TENANT has gone on to be
utilized with great success by filmmakers like David Lynch and the
Coen Brothers
(whose BARTON FINK, a film greatly admired by Polanski, is remarkably
TENANT-like in many ways).
The Story
Trelkovsky is a mousy young man who moves into a Parisian apartment
building presided over by a crotchety old man who loves to continuously remind
his tenants of how difficult it is to find a place to live and that in doing so
he’s providing an incredibly generous service. Trelkovky’s apartment, it turns
out, is a small, shabby hole whose previous tenant, a young woman, attempted
suicide by jumping out the window. Trelkovsky goes to visit the woman in a
hospital, where he finds a decrepit figure with bandages covering her entire
body. He also meets Stella, the woman’s best friend, who for some reason takes
an immediate shine to Trelkovsky.
Back in the apartment things grow increasingly strange. In the bathroom
across from Trelkovsky’s room people stand motionless for hours on end. One
morning Trelkovsky spills a lot of trash in the apartment stairwell but when he
comes back to clean it up finds it has mysteriously disappeared. His neighbors
are apparently extremely sensitive to sound and register endless
complaints with the management about Trelkovsky and his alleged noise-making.
He’s further alienated from his fellow tenants when he refuses to sign a
petition to force a woman living upstairs with her crippled daughter to vacate
the premises.
As the atmosphere grows increasingly stifling, Trelkovsky begins to suspect
that his neighbors are plotting against him. Pretty soon he finds himself
wearing the clothes of the previous tenant and smearing make-up on his face, and
realizes the “truth”: that his fellow tenants are trying to change him into
his apartment’s former occupant. He turns to Stella for help, but comes to the
conclusion that she’s in on it too--there’s nowhere to turn, it seems, except
out his apartment window, in the manner of its previous occupant…
The Direction
As he did in ROSEMARY’S BABY, Roman Polanski follows his source material
extremely closely in THE TENANT, complete with dialogue that’s often
word-for-word the same as that of the Roland Topor novel. Polanski does,
however, depart from the text in one significant--and highly
questionable--aspect: he often undercuts the protagonist’s experiences by
alternating the “actual” events with Trelkovsky’s delusions. Thus a woman
choking Trelkovsky is “actually” invisible, just as the sinister appearance of
the apartment manager through a peephole is “actually” a door-to-door salesman.
Polanski’s puzzling insistence on accentuating the fact that the drama is all in
Trelkovsky’s head feels like a cynical attempt at “explaining” what should have
been left up to viewers to decide for themselves (it’s the type of thing I’d
expect a Hollywood studio executive to force a filmmaker into after a bad test
screening) and only serves to distance one from the action.
Thankfully the film is superbly made; as usual, Polanski’s camerawork and
editing are top notch, with an unerring eye for detail and an atmosphere that
positively drips with foreboding, unease and a singularly perverse sense of
humor. He pulls off quite a few bravura moments herein, most notably the
stunning opening pan around the exterior of Trelkovsky’s apartment building.
Polanski also delivers a flawless performance in the lead role, his first major
acting part since THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS; as the nerdy Trelkovsky he’s
funny, appropriately mousy and isn’t afraid to make himself look like a complete
buffoon--indeed, he seems to positively relish doing so throughout.
Vital Statistics
THE TENANT (LE LOCATAIRE)
Paramount Pictures
Director: Roman Polanski
Producer: Andrew Braunsberg
Screenplay: Roman Polanski, Gerard Brach
(Based on a novel by Roland Topor)
Cinematography: Sven Nykvist
Editing: Francois Bonnot
Cast: Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas, Jo Van Fleet, Bernard Fresson, Shelley Winters, Lila Kedrova, Claude Dauphin, Claude Pieplu, Rufus,
Romain Bouteille, Jacques Monod, Patrice Alexsandre, Michel Blanc