'The Tenant' is a thriller directed by Roman Polanski which came out in 1976 and it is the 3rd and final film in his unofficial 'Apartments Trilogy'. A man named Trelkovsky moves into a new apartment in which the previous resident had committed suicide. He constantly gets told off by the owner and other neighbours for being too noisy. These constant restrictions and a sense of alienation and guilt breaks him and leads him to a state of manic paranoia.
Let me just start this review by saying that this film just didn't work for me. I felt extremely disengaged and never did I ever find myself caring for the protagonist and believing his plight. There are many reasons for this. Let's discuss them one by one :
1. The script and the screenplay is very poorly written. The first 2 films in the 'Apartment Trilogy' namely 'Repulsion' and 'Rosemary's Baby' work brilliantly because the scripts in those films are far more craftily written where you find yourself caring for the characters. There are very rich subtexts to the paranoia suffered by the characters like sexual abuse/repression, social change and religion, etc. Many people will say there are themes at work in 'The Tenant' too like isolation, guilt, self-identity,etc. But I just didn't find myself interested at all due to the lack of believable aspects of the storyline. I haven't read the original novel that it is based on, but the storyline in the film didn't seem convincing at all. There is a relationship that builds between the protagonist Trelkovsky and a female character in the film which felt very awkward. The whole paranoia aspect which was so spectacularly done by Polanski in 'Repulsion' and 'Rosemary's Baby', just falls flat here and almost laughably so. The build to the ultimate payoff of the last 30 minutes is extremely underdeveloped and unconvincing and the movie failed to make me buy the fact that someone could actually get engulfed by paranoia and go mad for the reasons that are shown here. It all happens in a very sudden and rushed way. The climactic set piece is also very dumb.
2. Roman Polanski is a great director, but acting is not his cup of tea. He completely fails to properly and convincingly portray this character Trelkovsky. He just doesn't have an on-screen presence and the subtlety to pull off a character who is slipping into a state of madness. The performances from the other actors also aren't anything remarkable.
3. The sound mixing for this film is terrible. This film was shot in many different languages and in some of the scenes the overdubbing in English is extremely jarring and I was put off by the grotesque quality of the dubbing.
There are a few set-pieces that work and which are actually creepy and the camera work in certain scenes is good, but apart from that I have nothing positive to say about this film.
'The Tenant' is one of my least favourite Roman Polanski films. The paranoia and the descent into madness of the protagonist is not convincing at all. The characters are all very uninteresting. The themes don't have any impact on the viewer due to the sloppy nature in which they are treated in the screenplay. This was a hugely disappointing way to cap off the 'Apartment Trilogy'.
Let me just start this review by saying that this film just didn't work for me. I felt extremely disengaged and never did I ever find myself caring for the protagonist and believing his plight. There are many reasons for this. Let's discuss them one by one :
1. The script and the screenplay is very poorly written. The first 2 films in the 'Apartment Trilogy' namely 'Repulsion' and 'Rosemary's Baby' work brilliantly because the scripts in those films are far more craftily written where you find yourself caring for the characters. There are very rich subtexts to the paranoia suffered by the characters like sexual abuse/repression, social change and religion, etc. Many people will say there are themes at work in 'The Tenant' too like isolation, guilt, self-identity,etc. But I just didn't find myself interested at all due to the lack of believable aspects of the storyline. I haven't read the original novel that it is based on, but the storyline in the film didn't seem convincing at all. There is a relationship that builds between the protagonist Trelkovsky and a female character in the film which felt very awkward. The whole paranoia aspect which was so spectacularly done by Polanski in 'Repulsion' and 'Rosemary's Baby', just falls flat here and almost laughably so. The build to the ultimate payoff of the last 30 minutes is extremely underdeveloped and unconvincing and the movie failed to make me buy the fact that someone could actually get engulfed by paranoia and go mad for the reasons that are shown here. It all happens in a very sudden and rushed way. The climactic set piece is also very dumb.
2. Roman Polanski is a great director, but acting is not his cup of tea. He completely fails to properly and convincingly portray this character Trelkovsky. He just doesn't have an on-screen presence and the subtlety to pull off a character who is slipping into a state of madness. The performances from the other actors also aren't anything remarkable.
3. The sound mixing for this film is terrible. This film was shot in many different languages and in some of the scenes the overdubbing in English is extremely jarring and I was put off by the grotesque quality of the dubbing.
There are a few set-pieces that work and which are actually creepy and the camera work in certain scenes is good, but apart from that I have nothing positive to say about this film.
'The Tenant' is one of my least favourite Roman Polanski films. The paranoia and the descent into madness of the protagonist is not convincing at all. The characters are all very uninteresting. The themes don't have any impact on the viewer due to the sloppy nature in which they are treated in the screenplay. This was a hugely disappointing way to cap off the 'Apartment Trilogy'.