Roman Polanski's The Tenant (1976)

Title: The Tenant (1976)

Director/Writer: Roman Polanski

Cast: Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani

Review:

After watching Polanski's Repulsion (1965), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), and now The Tenant, I can see why they call these three films Polanski’s "Apartment Trilogy". They are three psychological horror films that all take place inside the claustrophobic confines of a small apartment. These three movies have a heck of a lot in common between them, and their similarities go way beyond the simple fact that they take place inside of an apartment. I’ll get to the similarities in a moment, but for now I want to say that these three films are three very solid Polanski’s films, anyone out there who hasnt seen either of these should make it a top priority!

The Tenant is about a young man named Trelkovsky, who is on the look out for a new apartment. When he finally finds one that he likes, it turns out that the previous owner jumped out the window in an attempted suicide. In spite of this, he still rents the apartment. He then decides to do a little detective work. So he decides to visit the apartment’s previous owner in the hospital to see how she is doing. Turns out she is catatonic, covered in bandages from head to tow! What could have driven her to suicide that way? Meanwhile, Trelkovsky new neighbors are driving him insane. He throws a party, they complain, he listens to the radio, they complain, if he does anything, they complain! What’s Trelkovsky to do living in a place where he apparently can’t even have a decent party in?

So this movie was amazing in my book, let’s get that out of the way! I had seen some of Polanski movies, but man, I was missing out on Repulsion and The Tenant in a big way! Had I known these two films were so good, I would have seen them a long time ago. As it is, I am an instant fan of these two awesome movies. What makes The Tenant so great you might ask? Well, let’s start by the setting. As part of Polanski’s “Apartment Trilogy” this one takes place almost entirely inside of Trelkovsky’s new apartment building. We are introduced to his new home via this long tracking shot of the building were we can appreciate its architecture, its windows, the nooks and crannies that make up the entire building. Italian horror director Dario Argento did a similar shot in Tenebrae, only here, in Polanski’s The Tenant this long shot of the building has a purpose. It serves as a way to introduce us to where the main character will be spending most of his time, and sets the atmosphere and tone for the entire picture. Argento’s ridiculously pointless tracking shot of a home in Tenebrae (that goes on forever and ever) goes absolutely nowhere. On The Tenant Polanski focuses on the shadows, the windows and the mysterious silhouettes that hide behind them. Awesome way to open a film, Polanski won me over right from the beginning of this film.

Yup, thats a decapitated head flying through the air!

Then we are slowly presented with the characters. And this was something I absolutely loved about this movie. How we slowly, but surely, get to know the characters of the piece. Its something that movies don’t take the time to do often these days. Trelkovsky, the films main character is played by none other than Roman Polanski himself. I have to hand it to Polanski, he is not a bad actor at all! The character is a mild mannered, intelligent, educated individual. He seems to be the kind of guy who would do anything to avoid problems with anyone. And he has just moved into a building in which apparently everyone is very conservative, very quiet, you know, people who like to do everything by the book. So apparently, everything is fine and dandy with this new apartment, except for the fact that the previous tenant tried to commit suicide which apparently is something that Trelkovsky is willing to live with.

As I mentioned before, The Tenant is a film that has many similarities with Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby. With these three films, Polanski is criticizing the way people live in apartment buildings, inside of a box, inside of a limited space, and he comments on how this can contribute to drive a person insane after a while. In all three films, there is this feeling of paranoia that takes over the character, the walls, the lamps, the windows, all the little things that make up an apartment take a dark tone to them. Suddenly, that window over there looks evil somehow. Suddenly that chipped paint on the wall, makes everything look grimier, crazier. This is something that Polanski did a lot in Repulsion as well, and he does it yet again on The Tenant. The difference with The Tenant is that the emphasis is placed on the neighbors. In this way, The Tenant has more similarities with Rosemary’s Baby. You get the vibe that there is something not quite right with these neighbors. In fact, The Tenant feels a heck of a lot like The Wickerman (1973), where it feels like everybody is in on something, and the main character is the only one who doesn’t know it.

The film is very ambiguous with certain elements. Suddenly, you can get a supernatural vibe from the film, but you are never quite sure. This is really one of the best ways that a film can display supernatural elements, by doing so in an extremely subtle fashion. The Tenant might have supernatural elements to it…or does it? The answer to this question is never really given. Polanski seems more concerned with leaving you with a feeling of uncertainty. I have to applaud Polanski for creating such a feeling of dread and suspense with this movie. Best part? A lot of it is on your mind! Polanski leads you to believe certain things, and doesn’t exactly spell things out for you, but he grabs your attention that’s for sure! Much like Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby, this is a film about a character’s decent into madness. It’s the kind of film where a character goes from completely normal to completely bonkers. By the time you reach the ending, the character isn’t the same one you met at the beginning of the film. He is the complete opposite! The different elements that drive Trelkovsky insane is what I found most interesting on this film.

If Repulsion was a film about a young woman who's antisocial behaviour drives her insane, and Rosemary’s Baby is about a character going insane because of a bunch of religious folks drive her to it, then The Tenant is a film about a person going insane because of society. As you can see,  insanity is another theme that ties these films together. Trelkovsky is a normal guy, who suddenly finds himself surrounded by a bunch of uptight, self righteous individuals with all these rules and regulations. They don’t let Trelkovsky live in peace. It gets to a point where he can’t do anything without someone complaining! To me this is Polanski criticizing society, and the idea that there is always somebody watching you, there is always somebody telling you what is right and what is wrong according to their point of view, and if you don’t subscribe to it, then you are wrong, and you must pay for it.

Theres something you dont see every day: Mr. Polanski in Drag!

It has been said that Polanski is a director who understands women and how they think and feel. And this much is true. Many of his films have a female protagonist. In films like Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby for example, we see the film through a females eyes. In The Tenant Polanski’s character tries to understand what drove a woman insane, and ends up almost turning into her. Through this film, Polanski also explores what homosexuals go through, and the rejection they get from society, and how this rejection, can drive people mad.

Essentially, what we got here is a film that’s speaks of how we sometimes try to be accommodating to others, we try to make everyone happy, but are they thinking of making you happy as well? Can society drive you nuts with all its rules and regulations? With their uptight self righteous way of thinking? Should we live like that? Always criticizing the next person, trying to make them be like us? Or should we all just let each other be the way we want to be? Interesting subject matter for sure, and one that is made all the more interesting because Polanski makes everything mysterious and ominous through his flawless direction. A perfect psychological thriller in my book, highly recommend it.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Repulsion (1965)

Title: Repulsion (1965)

Director: Roman Polanksi

Writers: Roman Polaski, Gerard Brach, David Stone

Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Yvonne Furneaux,

Review:

Repulsion was Roman Polanski’s first English language film. He wanted to make a commercially successful film so that he could get funding for another film he wanted make (Cul-de-Sac) so when he was invited to direct this film, he accepted. Repulsion’s producers were aiming to make a film along the lines of Alfred Hitchcock’s incredibly successful Psycho (1960). You know, a thriller, with a spooky vibe and a shocker of an ending which always included some kind of a twist. This kind of film was very popular during the sixties, with every other studio and producer trying to get their Psycho-like film made. For example, Hammer Films was one of the studios to really exploit this formula, producing films like Taste of Fear (1961) Nightmare (1964) and Paranoiac (1963). Roman Polanski’s Repulsion was part of that wave of films that came as a response to the success of Hitchcock’s Psycho, but I would hate to refer to it as a knock off or cheap imitation because it is so much more than that. Repulsion is actually one of the finest examples of a film in which the main character slowly but surely descends into madness.

The story for Repulsion concerns a working girl named Carol. Carol works in Kensington, London as a manicurist. Making rich old ladies look good. Carol lives with her sister Helen in a small flat. But there is one problem; Carol suffers from a condition known as androphobia. She is afraid of men, and finds any sort of physical (or even social) contact with them repulsive. Men try to go out with her on dates, but she does everything in her power to refuse their offers. And when she does go out, she behaves in the most awkward fashion. She is physically and psychologically uncomfortable around men. Another problem comes when her sister Helen has an affair with a married man, and she can hear her sister having sex in the room next door. Helen’s lover becomes yet another reason for Carol to be uncomfortable in her own home. But, Helen and her lover are going on a vacation to Italy, and will leave the apartment at the care of Carol for a couple of days. It seems like finally, Carol will have peace in a male free environment. Will this isolation make Carol happy? Or will she sink deeper into her phobias?

Of course, you know the answer that question; she is going to sink deeper into her phobias. What I found interesting about this movie is how little by little you can notice that there is something kind of odd about Carol’s behavior. She does whatever she can to avoid a young mans advances, she goes out with him but doesn’t want to kiss him. She hates the fact that her sister allows her lover to stay over at their apartment. She spaces out at work, falling asleep while working, making mistakes. In the first half of the film, Roman Polanski in collaboration with actress Catherine Deneuve worked hard to make sure we understand that Carol is not really right in the head. On many scenes (actually practically the whole movie) Deneuve blankly stares into the void, her thoughts drifting away into her own private world. While the films first half gives us little hints of Carol’s dementia, it isn’t until the films second half - when Carol’s sister decides to go on vacation with her lover- that the movie really dives into Carol’s decent into madness; for she is left all alone to fight with the demons of her mind.

One of the things that makes Repulsion a special film is its direction. Polanski focuses on the strangest things, and uses the weirdest angles to let us know that Carol is nuts. She will stare at something for long periods of time, and Polanski will let us see what she is looking at, and in a strange way, because the way the scene is illuminated or the angles that Polanski decides to use, we feel Carol’s insanity. It’s all about the strange and unconventional camera angles. Polanski really squeezed a great performance out of Deneuve. Reportedly, Polanski pushed Deneuve’s buttons during filming so that her anger and fury would be reflected on her performance, and it did.

Catherine Deneuve has the responsibility of carrying a large part of this film on her shoulders because for most of the running time, it’s just her, alone in her apartment with her hallucinations and nightmares. Her visions include hands coming out of walls to grab her, people raping her and walls cracking and turning into silly putty. I liked how the disorder in the apartment is representative of her mental state. The cracks that appear in the walls represent her fractured psyche, and her sexual nightmares represent her repressions. In this apartment everything symbolizes something about Carol’s decomposing mental state. This is a technique that has been used in many films that imitate Repulsion, for example Lucky McKee’s May (2002) and David Koepp’s Secret Window (2004) starring Johnny Depp. These are films on which the character’s home represent the way they are feeling or thinking. In Repulsion, we see decaying food, we see a bath tub overflowing, we see walls cracking, all of which let us know that Carol is definitely cracking up.

The film was shot on black and white, which gives everything a grimier dirtier look. Polanski wanted to capture the life of two working girls that live bordering on poverty and survival. I thought the film captures this sort of desperation that the working class can live through. It caught the desperation of the working class to pay the rent, to not be late for work, to live life at a frenetic pase. It also captures the claustrophobia that you can feel when living in a small apartment. By the way, Repulsion along with Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Tenant (1976) compose what is known as Polanski’s “Apartment Trilogy”, three films that all take place mostly within the confinements of a small apartment.

In conclusion, this is one of the best “decent into madness” movies I have ever seen. It shows us a character which slowly disintegrates until by the end of the film, she is an uncontrollable mess of a person. A wreck of a human being, not at all in control of her actions. It has some really stylish direction from Roman Polanski and I would highly recommend it to lovers of horror and psychological thrillers. One of Polanski’s best films.

Rating: 5 out of 5