Classic Horrors Club

Of course, I’ve always admired Rosemary’s Baby (1969), but I was a latecomer to Repulsion (1965). Now I’m even more of a latecomer to The Tenant (1976), the third movie in Roman Polanski’s loose trilogy of movies about the horrors of apartment living in the big city. The most personal thing they have in common is that I’ve given them all the same nearly perfect IMDb and Letterboxd ratings. 

Here, Polanski himself plays the lead character, Trelkovsky, a man who moves into the apartment of a woman who committed suicide by jumping from her window. Well, she’s hanging by a thread in the hospital, but for some reason he won’t commit to the landlord’s lease terms until he’s certain she won’t recover and come back home. He pretends to be a friend and visits her, then calls the next day to see if she’s still breathing. 

She’s not, so he moves right in. Perhaps a clue to a mystery I can’t solve, the hospital visit scene also provides a concrete opportunity for him to meet Stella (Isabelle Adjani), a true friend of the victim. They bond over her grief and establish an ongoing, yet informal relationship that may border on co-dependency. Just as it seems to become romantic or sexual, something always happens to prevent consummation.

There can be no spoilers here, because The Tenant provides no definitive explanation for what happens to Trelkovsky. Is it the paranoia of Repulsion or the actual evil of Rosemary’s Baby that causes him to either slip into insanity or be possessed by the former tenant? And, if it’s the latter, are his neighbors orchestrating it for some reason to drive him to also take a flying leap from the window?

If you need straight answers, you aren’t going to get them, and you may not like the movie. Further, the way Polanski presents the story, there’s solid evidence of any scenario you choose. Then, on top of it all, a terrifying conclusion further muddies the water and maybe it’s something we didn’t even consider. (I sensed it coming, but I think an earlier clue was necessary to provide believability to the outcome.)

Adjani, so fearless in Possession (1981), twice nominated for an Oscar, and multiple winner of other awards, is nearly unrecognizable as Stella, yet in a similar way, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. (I need to watch more of her films.) Perhaps I was further mesmerized by something I didn’t realize until later: she was dubbed in English for at least some versions of the film by Katherine Leigh Scott of my beloved Dark Shadows.

Polanski is also perfect as Trelkovsky. I didn’t realize he’s appeared in bit parts of so many of his films, but this was his first leading role since The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967.) He’s at times, and sometimes simultaneously, mysterious, suspicious, awkward, charming, bewildered, purposeful, frightened, and more. Perhaps it was easier for him to act out what he was thinking without trying to express what he wanted by directing someone else.

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