After watching Rosemary's baby I decided to see The Tenant. I was drawn mainly by its plot and the way I was feeling after having seen the Baby. And this movie made me feel even worse. Mr Polanski really managed to scare the hell out of me with this one, too.
This movie is so slow that after watching it for one hour you start asking yourself: "Well, when will something begin to develop here?" And soon after you think that, that's when it all begins. The paranoia, the fear, the unexplainable things that start to haunt the main character, Mr Trelkowski, brilliantly portrayed by Polanski himself. Is it all part of his imagination, is he crazy, are his neighbours trying to make him mad? Who is playing with whom here? Well, honestly, Polanski is playing with us, the viewers. And he makes it so damn good that you don't know more what's true, who's good and who's bad, who's crazy and who's sane.
The plot is pretty simple. Or it begins that way. There is a new tenant in the building, a French citizen from Poland who rents an apartment where there used to live a girl who committed suicide but still lies in the hospital. After few days, he finds out that the girl died and officially becomes a new tenant. And again as in Rosemary's baby, there are some strange things going on in and his building. Unknown people stare at him through his window, his neighbours complain about the noise he supposedly makes in the night, some of them try to convince him to sign a petition against other tenants. The only person he trusts is the girl he met when he visited the girl that committed suicide. But until when will this last? He convinces himself that the whole neighbourhood is against him and that they want him dead, which eventually ends pretty nasty.
Polanski is playing a mind game with his viewers, leaving them space to decide on the movie's end. But what is certain, it will trigger some thoughts, it will raise questions and it won't definitely leave you speechless. On the contrary, you will force yourself to resolve its mystery. And yes, I think you won't look out your bedroom window that night ;)
LovelyT
