The Unhomely - The Tenant

Fig 1.

The Tenant (1976)

Director - Roman Polanski

Trelkovsky (Polanski) moves into an appartment not long after the previous tenant Simone apparently tries to commit suicide by jumping out of a window. Trelkovsky over the film gradually starts to become more and more like Simone. But it's not certain as to whether this is due to the influence of the other homosidal tenants or if it's just down to his own paranioa. Time Out give the decription, Trelkovsky "soon finds himself at the centre of a real or imagined conspiracy that pushes him into assuming the identity of his predecessor". But at the end the twist review a more bizaar plot.

Fig 2.

The beauty of The Tenant is the realism of the everyday mundane events that unfold and how much they are in stark contrast to the surreal paraniod episodes that Trelkovsky increasingly faces during the film. Though this film isn't without its humour albeit dark. Trelkovsky evertually as he thinks he is becoming Simone follows her route into suicide in a bizaar and comical manner as he jumps out the same window dressed as a woman. When he doesn't succeed he immediately clambers up to his appartment to jump out the window again.

Fig 3.

Overall The Tenant gives a unsettling insite into the world of the paronoid, "a genuine sense of mouldering creepiness" as stated by Film 4. Certainly a creepiness the leaves you wondering what is unfolding right up to the last minute.

Fig 4

Image Bibliography

Fig 1, The Tenant DVD cover, 1976, [photography], http://horror.mdv.se/index.php?ind=273

Fig 2, The Tenant Still, 1976, [photography], http://shangols.canalblog.com/archives/2010/10/03/19231900.html

Fig 3, The Tenant Still, 1976, [photography], http://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2010/11/tenant.html

Fig 4, The Tenant Still, 1976, [photography], http://aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com/2010/11/tenant.html

Bibliography.

T, R, The Tenant (1976), Time Out, [Online] avaliable at http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/79044/the_tenant.html [Accessed 13 December 2010]

Le Locataire, Film 4, [Online] avaliable at  http://www.film4.com/reviews/1976/le-locataire [Accessed 13 December 2010]