On day one, he is introduced to the idiosyncrasies of his place. Reluctantly, they give him the apartment. They don’t seem to like the fact that his is Polish, even though he is a French citizen. ![]() Part of their scorn may have to do with his accent. This duo, played ever so effectively by Melvyn Douglas and Shelley Winters, is never short on scowls when looking his way. From the beginning, the landlord and landlady are suspicious of him, even though he presents himself pleasantly. Before I do so, it is necessary to hike through the weeds of the plot. I told you the film is weird! But, is this metamorphosis literal or symbolic? Does he really change or is he just hallucinating? He had been hallucinating though half of the film, so why would he stop by the film’s end? I think I might be able to shine some light on this mystery and get down to the nitty-gritty details that might just explain in the heck is going on here. By the film’s end, he finds himself, not only in a different body but in a very horrifying position. I had stated that a characters, when living in such close proximity to anonymous and strange neighbors, experience a sense of ambiguity about who they really are, They lose their sense of self among the nameless. Trelkovsky struggles with his identity, but this struggle is so severe, and it touches on another theme I had outlined in the initial article but have not yet mentioned here. ![]() But as with the other two films in this apartment trilogy, the main character is the victim of a whole lot of psychological horror. What of The Tenant? Well, his neighbors certainly act as agents of a disembodied danger. Characters struggle with their own identity, as Carol does in the film Repulsion, the first film in The Apartment Trilogy. Psychological horror often plays out in a thriller film or novel that takes place in an apartment. Or they might simply be members of some strange cult, as in the film Rosemary’s Baby, Polanski’s second film in The Apartment Trilogy. The neighbors might even be ghosts or demons. This is certainly true in the Konvitz’s novels ( The Sentinel and The Guardian). In that intro article that kicked off this series, neighbors are often agents of a disembodied danger that exists within the apartment complex. A brief recap of these themes is appropriate at this time, along with a quick mention as to how they play out in the films and novels that I have reviewed in this apartment series so far. Before I go any further, I would like to rehash some of the themes that I had outlined in my very first apartment article Beyond the House: An Examination of Hauntings Within Alternate Structures Part 2 – Apartment Buildings. These themes, I had argued, pertain in general to stories concerning apartments where strange and terrifying activities occur. Isolation, prejudice, paranoia are but a few. As a testament to this brilliance, there are all kinds of themes at work in this film. He is convinced that all of them are trying to drive him to suicide. His landlord and lady are openly hostile to him. Polanski plays Trelkovsky, a Polish immigrant/French citizen living in a Paris apartment complex. A person going mad in a Polanski apartment film ? No way! (Yeah way). Throughout the film, viewers watch his descent into madness. ![]() ![]() And that film is The Tenant! Polanski himself stars as “the tenant”, a mild-mannered man who is having all kinds of trouble adjusting to his environment in a new apartment. Warning: Spoilers abound in this article.Īs promised, I have for your reading pleasure a review and analysis of the third film in Roman Polanski’s Apartment Trilogy.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |