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5/27/99 |
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| Polanski plays Tronofski, a dreary Euro-immigrant office worker who moves into an equally dreary Parisian apartment. When he learns that the prior tenant had committed suicide by flinging herself out the window, he becomes obsessed with learning more about her, and begins to gradually take on her characteristics, going so far as to wear her clothes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The further he descends into the madness, the more he suspects that his neighbors had forced his predecessor to jump, and would now like him to do the same. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Whether or not this is the case is never made perfectly clear--no proof is given--but certainly the fellow tenants are sinister enough to allow for the possibility (and to make one think of the malevolent neighbors in Polanski's 1968 masterpiece Rosemary's Baby). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The film's inevitable climax always makes me laugh (but I don't think that the audience in the theatre when I originally saw it appreciated my guffaws), as Tronofski's transition is now complete and he must take the dive twice to get the job done. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The sight of Polanski, in drag and bloodied, making his way back for more has to be seen to be believed, while his final fate serves to creep us out. Melvyn Douglas as the building owner and Shelly Winters as the "bored" concierge add class to the goings-on, as does Isabelle Adjani as Tronofski's bespectacled co-worker, who is hot for his bod. |
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| The film's subtleties are what makes it spooky, and the atmosphere of the apartment seems so evil that for the next few days you'll want to make sure that all the dark corners in your own abode are properly lit. The Tenant followed Polanski's Chinatown (1974), whose commercial and critical success may have allowed him to make this personal and disturbing horror/comedy. |
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Send Jim an E-mail |
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