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All of the ingredients are here, but it never quite sets.
One of Roman Polanski's Finest Moments...'Tenant' Strange and Suspenseful...
For film enthusiasts who love hypnotic, disturbing atmosphere. Among Polanski's tip-top films.
superlative - polanski used to experiment at that time
If you like Kafka...

Tenant (1976) (Ws Sub)
Starring: Isabelle Adjani , Patrice Alexsandre , Jean-Pierre Bagot , Josiane Balasko , and Michel Blanc
Manufacturer: Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000069I09
Release Date: 2003-07-01

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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

Customer Reviews:

All of the ingredients are here, but it never quite sets........2007-03-13

The Tenant (Roman Polanski, 1975)

Sometimes you put a brilliant novel together with a brilliant director and you get a brilliant movie. Sometimes, on the other hand, you get a movie that should be brilliant, but isn't quite, and you can't put your finger on why. That, in a nutshell, is The Tenant.

Set in the same Parisian housing crisis that was the setting for Last Tango in Paris, The Tenant is the story of Trelkovsky (Polanski), who gets an apartment in a decidedly weird building owned by Monsieur Zy (Melvyn Douglas). While renting the place, he is told by the concierge (Shelley Winters) that the previous owner threw herself out the window; he goes to the hospital to see her (to ensure she hasn't long to go; after all, if she survives, he can't rent the apartment) and meets her friend Stella (Isabelle Adjani), with whom he embarks on a hesitant, but tumultuous, relationship. Everything seems to be going relatively well, except that the neighbors in the building are strange-- he often sees someone standing in the bathroom across the way, just staring out the window, and everyone seems to have an absurd preoccupation with noise. Eventually, Trelkovsky becomes convinced that the others in the building murdered the previous tenant, and that he's next.

Roland Topor's novel, upon which this film is based, is a wonderful piece of outsider art. And what's all the more odd here is that The Tenant is, as far as adaptations go, a relatively faithful one; no major scenes or subplots were eliminated, that I could tell. What this shows, ultimately, is the futility of the idea of the faithful book-to-screen translation. Much of the subtext of Trelkovsky's character, especially the haunting feeling in the back of the reader's mind that Trelkovsky is being persecuted for being a foreigner, is absent from the film, and Polanski plays the relationship between Trelkovsky and Stella far less ambiguously than the Trelkovsky in the novel; the character here seems almost absurdly grateful at times just to have a girlfriend, even when he's discussing such topics as his possible dismemberment. His paranoia remains, but it seems an isolated thing, rather than being a symptom of his rapidly-decaying mental state. Now, yes, I do realize that such things would be nearly impossible to bring to the screen in any reasonable manner, and that Polanski had to choose which aspects of Trelkovsky's character to emphasize when filming (at least he didn't have the intermediary of an actor, who might not have read the novel, filtering the character though his own experiences). That's my point, really; in any faithful adaptation, the movie is almost sure to suffer.

None of this is to say that the movie is valueless; far from it. If you like your comedy blacker than two-day-old coffee, your horror ludicrous, and your drama melo, then look no further than The Tenant for a thoroughly amusing time. However, be prepared; it's certainly not Polanski's strongest work. ***

One of Roman Polanski's Finest Moments...'Tenant' Strange and Suspenseful..........2007-02-13

Roman Polanski's REPULSION was a terrifying descent into the world of isolation and complete madness. ROSEMARY'S BABY was a tale of child birth gone satanic with a delusional edge. THE TENANT is one of those psychological thrillers you have to pay close attention to in order to understand and fully grasp the concept of paranoia. It's one of the finest thrillers since Hitchcock's masterful PSYCHO. But THE TENANT is an altogether different experience.

We meet a working class man named Trevoltsky (played by Polanski himself) who is working in Paris and trying to find a new Apartment. We learn in the beginning that the place he's interested in once belonged to a woman by the name of Simone, a woman who was driven to suicide without specific explanation. After Trevoltsky manages to whisk the apartment away and move in, he goes to the hospital to meet Simone, who is in a complete bodycast and has suffered serious injury from her attempt at an end. There, Trevoltsky meets Stella, a young woman who he seems entranced with and is a friend of Simone's. They meet for drinks and go to see a movie, where they end up getting rather hot for each other but must reserve themselves after a few glances from an onlooker. They part ways and Trevoltsky goes off himself.

From there, we watch as the new neighbors of Trevoltsky become irritated with his late night antics and strange manner, and many strange things begin to happen that make Trevoltsky suspect there is something more going on then he's been thinking. For instance, when Trevoltsky discovers a tooth in his wall that was hidden, his reaction is the same as when we see him viewing it, like "where the hell did this come from?" And another instance is when Trevoltsky returns from a late night out with Stella, the landlord demands an explanation for Trevoltsky's actions with a woman that night in his apartment. But Trevoltsky explains he wasn't even there, and the descent into paranoia starts to sink in. Trevoltsky begins to suspect there's a plot against him from the neighbors and tries to let Stella in on this susposed devious madness. But even later in the movie Trevoltsky begins to suspect that even Stella is in on the whole deal with the neighbors and his paranoia starts to stir like crazy. By the time of the movie's climax, we see Trevoltsky has gone completely mad and is dressed like a woman and ends up attempting his suicide twice in the same instance, all the while delusions of the neighbors trying to aide in his demise torment him. He ends up in a body cast much like Simone and his fate is thus sealed.

THE TENANT is one of those thrillers where repeated viewings will get you to appreciate what Polanski has done here. What's he's created turns out to be a fine thriller in the vein of PSYCHO and REPULSION, and his exploration into the world of paranoia and delusions further cements his status as one of the great thriller directors of our generation. THE TENANT remains a fine suspense thriller that will make you think whether the next neighbors you have will leave you guessing at every turn.

For film enthusiasts who love hypnotic, disturbing atmosphere. Among Polanski's tip-top films........2007-01-12

Roman Polanski became one of cinema's most capable film directors, and THE TENANT is among his very finest works in or out of Hollywood.

Polanski has an unparalleled ability to externalize and visualize human insanity, or impending insanity, and to portray that condition of mind on-screen in a way that is clear and understandable and palpable to a broad audience.

Other filmmakers certainly have portrayed hallucination, for instance, but rarely do we see a film that requires no explanation, interpretation or telegraphing, regarding which images are delusional.

Roman Polanski needs no such decoder ring. He has a positive genius for devising images and shots which portray delusions as we would expect them to be; we quickly know what is illusion, what is reality, and what is, at a given point in his story's time line, still ambiguous for the story's purpose.

THE TENANT is a delectable treat for those viewers who can appreciate a journey into darkness, odd personalities, and extremely wry humor generated by nothing more contrived than human characters we've all encountered ourselves at some time or another.

The film segues deftly and seamlessly -- from serious moments, to undeniably hilarious moments, to moments of disturbing, frightening images leading inexorably to sub-climaxes, large or small, of stark horror.

THE TENANT is a fully formed film from start to finish, starting benignly enough (as with REPULSION) and developing into moments of human dysfunction to make one's skin crawl.

The last act and its climax are full of emotional complexity and revelation -- but so, in its way, is Polanski's first act as it establishes the protagonist's off-kilter existence at his new apartment.

The film is perfectly visualized with a sound effects track as inspired as that of ROSEMARY'S BABY. There are clues in it that casual viewers may miss.

Until REPULSION, this film's closest relative, is remastered, sharpened and fully framed, THE TENANT will stand unchallenged in Polanski's stellar career as his most disturbing film.

A slight spoiler: The scene in which a woman's decapitated head is bouncing like a basketball with hair flying at Roman's balcony window would clinch this film's creative reputation single-handedly. But combined with the elderly folk in the downstairs apartment who blast their stereo with old standards and marching music for their own unique reasons, you have something far beyond the realm of mundane horror films. This is thoughtful art exploring aspects of the human condition, inspired by a director with a singular eye for things quintessentially unsettling.

superlative - polanski used to experiment at that time.......2006-12-11

Surrealist visions, hallucination, urge-vision, lost dimension, memory derangement - everything is part of the movie - it is symbolic - it shows you how association and nature of circumstances and surroundings helps to superimpose one character on another or it is like the human evolution (more about mutation) - this is a story about a tenant (soft spoken immigrant) in a poor paris neighbourhood - he sacrifices his comforts to live in a desent place but his neighbours throw the torch at him - they take him to the edge and he starts living in a world of hallucination - he cross dresses and starts to identify with the previous renter of the same apartment who commited suicide by jumping from the window

This is a very different Polanski - of coarse polansky himself plays in this movie as a mild mannered immigrant in Paris - it shows the xenophobia in Paris for other cultures and loved it - look for the fine expressions and the nature of pain as it happens to human life

If you like Kafka..........2006-11-22

Yes, this is a bizarre film. If you don't like your films a little "artsy," you might want to steer clear. If done well, I really like this type of film and found myself enjoying this one. I have not read the novel by Roland Topor, so I cannot draw comparisons between the movie and the book. It seems to me, however, that Mr. Topor was heavily influenced by the works of Franz Kafka. His use of absurdities, such as playing soccer with a human head and Mr. Trelkovsky changing into a woman, reminds me of "The Metamorphosis." The alienation, sense of solitude and conspiracy reminds me of "The Trial." Despite its morbid themes, the film also has a pervasive, dark humor to it that reminds me of both Kafka' writing and Stanley Kubrick's films. The film begins innocuously enough and really takes its time to build suspense. Although known as a director, it turns out Polanski can act and is quite charming and charismatic. It is his ability to carry the film as an actor that draws us into this film and captivates us, even though nothing terribly exciting happens at the onset. The film is filled with interesting characters and terrific dialogue, which alone would be enough to make the film worth recommending. Then there is the luminous Isabelle Adjani, who alone also would make the film worth watching. She is absolutely gorgeous, even behind those massive 70's glasses and funky clothes. Unfortunately, her time on screen is all too brief. One thing that bothers me a little is the fact the film was apparently shot in both English and in French, though one of the languages is dubbed, depending on which language track you choose. (i.e. the English is dubbed if watching in French and the French is dubbed if watching in English) I would rather watch the film in the original language with subtitles, even if it was shot using two or more languages. Just a minor grievance. Although it has nothing to do with the content of the film, I couldn't help but contemplate the relationship between Polanski and Eva Ionesco, who was about ten or eleven when the film was shot. Everyone is aware Mr. Polanski was forced to leave the United States because if his illicit contact with a thirteen year old girl, and most are aware that young Miss Ionesco posed nude for her mother at about the same age and appeared nude in such films as "Spielen Wir Liebe." Given that Mr. Polanski is also a photographer, I just could not resist wondering about that.

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