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The Tenant
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The Tenant (Le Locataire)

Movie · 1976 · 3 people

Roman Polanski directed and starred in The Tenant (Le Locataire), a 1976 French psychological thriller. Lasting about two hours, it closes Polanski's "Apartment Trilogy", after Repulsion (1965) and Rosemary's Baby (1968). Early reviews were very hostile, but it has become a cult classic. In France it drew 534,637 admissions.

The story is set in Paris. Trelkovsky, a Polish immigrant, rents an apartment left vacant by Simone, who jumped from its window in a suicide attempt and lies in a coma. He visits her in hospital and, when she dies, becomes obsessed with her; strange happenings in the building wear down his sanity until he stands at the brink that claimed his predecessor. Polanski plays Trelkovsky. Isabelle Adjani is Stella, Melvyn Douglas is Mr Zy and Shelley Winters is the concierge, with Jo Van Fleet, Bernard Fresson, Lila Kedrova and Claude Dauphin.

The screenplay adapts Roland Topor's 1964 novel Le Locataire chimérique; Polanski and Gérard Brach wrote it in six weeks. Philippe Sarde composed the music. The film premiered at Cannes on 24 May 1976, competing for the Palme d'Or. Its atmosphere is compared with Don't Look Now (1973) and The Shining (1980), it shows Kafka's influence and is said to have shaped later films such as Fight Club (1999).

DirectorRoman Polanski

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Rufus Rufus Actor · 83 years old Jacques Monod Jacques Monod Film actor · died at 67 Maïté Nahyr Maïté Nahyr Actor · died at 64

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Through different eyes

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Closing Polanski's Apartment Trilogy, The Tenant pushes the closed-room dread of Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby to its limit. Having the director play Trelkovsky himself lends the film a strange intimacy: the gap between camera and character keeps shrinking, and the Paris flat turns into the interior of a mind. Philippe Sarde's score quietly feeds the unease. The hostility of the first reviews is understandable today; the film offers no comforting thrills and no firm answers. The talk of Kafka's influence and its eventual cult status are earned. Even so, the slow first half and a few situations that repeat themselves can easily lose an impatient viewer.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

If psychological thriller means fast pace to you, this may disappoint. The Tenant warms up slowly and builds tension through unease, not explosions. The strange goings-on in the building really do get under your skin, but getting there takes patience. Two hours is a bit long for this rhythm. Still, if it really shaped later films, it is worth one watch.

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humour and heart.

This is not a family film. The story opens with a suicide attempt and follows a man slowly losing his grip on his sanity. Its real weight is a suffocating sense of unease. Too heavy for children and teenagers, and it may unsettle older viewers too. Adults who enjoy psychological thrillers should watch it on their own.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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