The Tenant
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Isabelle Adjani, Jean-Pierre Bagot, Josiane Balasko, Michel Blanc, Patrice AlexsandrePrimary Contributor: Isabelle Adjani
Primary Contributor: Melvyn Douglas
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Running Time: 125 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-07-01
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of The Tenant
Movie Review: Not Sure if It's a Suspense or a Spoof of One, but It Succeeds at Neither.
Summary: 2 Stars
Roman Polanski and Gerard Brach, the screenwriting team behind Polanski's 1965 apartment house horror film "Repulsion", had less success in adapting Roland Topor's novel "Le locataire chim?rique" for the screen. It's difficult to say if "The Tenant" is trying to be a suspense or an absurdist parody of a suspense, but it hardly matters, as the film is neither scary nor funny. I can say with certainty is that it is too long. It feels like the story has been forcibly stretched. Ironically, the premise is essentially the same as in "Repulsion": A tenant descends into schizophrenic madness amid odd neighbors and eerie production design, alone in his apartment.
A Parisian bachelor named Mr. Trelkovsky (Roman Polanski) takes a dingy 2-room apartment in an old building, whose crotchety concierge (Shelley Winters) explains, "The previous tenant threw herself out of the window." His visits that former tenant, Simone, in the hospital, where he meets her friend Stella (Isabelle Adjani). But Trelkovsky, surrounded by Simone's belongings, can't get her suicide out of his mind. He sees people standing for hours in the toilet opposite his apartment. He is exasperated by the accusations of the building owner and the intrigues of his neighbors. Even Stella's kindness can't dispel his mounting paranoia.
The only good thing I can say about "The Tenant" is that Polanski's Trelkovsky seems authentically unassuming up to a point: He's genuinely pleased to find an apartment, embarrassed by his annoying co-workers, and really trying to be a nice guy. But nothing is interesting beyond that. His hallucinations and obsessions are more comic than frightening, but not enough to be entertaining, and his suffering inspires no empathy. To be clear, all dialogue is in English, which substitutes for French, presumably to make the film more commercial. The Paramount 2003 DVD includes a theatrical trailer (1 min). Subtitles are available in English. Dubbing available in French.
Summary of The Tenant
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 ShannonArt House & International DVD Video
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