The Tenant

The Tenant (Le Locataire)
original film poster
Directed by	Roman Polanski
Produced by	Hercules Bellville
Written by	Roland Topor (novel) Gérard Brach Roman Polanski
Starring	Roman Polanski Isabelle Adjani Melvyn Douglas Jo Van Fleet Bernard Fresson Lila Kedrova Claude Dauphin
Music by	Philippe Sarde
Cinematography	Sven Nykvist
Editing by	Françoise Bonnot
Release date(s)	May 26, 1976 (France) June 11, 1976 (USA) October 8, 1976 (Finland)
Running time	125 min
Language	English/French

The Tenant (French: Le Locataire) is a 1976 psychological thriller/horror film directed by Roman Polanski based upon the 1964 novel Le locataire chimérique by Roland Topor. It is also known under the French title Le Locataire. It co-stars actress Isabelle Adjani. It is the last film in Polanski's "Apartment Trilogy", following Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby. Interestingly, the film has no end credits; only the Paramount logo.

Plot synopsis

Trelkovsky (Polanski), a quiet and inconspicuous man, rents an apartment in France where the previous tenant committed suicide, and begins to suspect his landlord and neighbors are trying to subtly change him into the last tenant so that he too will kill himself.

Theories about the film

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This film does not clearly say whether the main character is mad or not, contrary to the previous entries in Polanski's Apartment Trilogy. Therefore a lot of theories have been made about it.

• From the presence of Egyptian symbols displayed in props in many scenes, a reincarnation theory could be derived : Trelkovsky and Simone are in reality the same person, which would explain the scene where Trelkovsky sees himself in his apartment. It follows, that that the scene where Trelkovsky stares at Simone is the very same scene, subject to a curious time warp. The bathroom represents a funeral chamber (as denoted by the hieroglyphs), which places Simone in this scene as a mummy, because of her appearance.
• Trelkovsky is either a fictional character created by Simone, or a fantasy based upon the man visiting her at the hospital. Therefore most of the story line in the film is imaginary, except the first few scenes. Simone is schizophrenic and develops another personality in order to fulfill her homosexual desires upon her friend Stella.
• Trelkovsky is merely hallucinating (this is suggested by the mise en scène).
• Trelkovsky was driven insane by his neighbors (as he claims to Stella). He is schizophrenic and thinks he is Simone, which ultimately leads to his suicide.
• The film is auto-biographical. Some potential proofs are : Polanski changing Trelkovsky's origins (in the book, he is of Russi extraction), the statements he made about how he used his experience to make the movie (the racist jokes, the cold neighbors).

The ending suggests the idea of a metaphysical sort of eternal recurrence,a concept that has its roots in Ancient Egypt(a central leitmotif of the film).It seems that Trelkovsky/Simone exist simultaneously in some sort of infinite,circular soul purgatory,a kind of kink in the space/time continuum,an end/beginning of the line,if you will.There is no spiritual resolution,no escape.David Lynch termed this a "psychogenic fugue" for his movie "Lost Highway".(FYI,Alain Sarde co-produced both "The Tenant" and Lynch's "Mulholland Drive")

External links

• Le Locataire at the Internet Movie Database
• The Tenant, Millipede Press 2006

References

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