THE TENANT | LE LOCATAIRE

FRANCE | 1976 | COLOR | DCP | 126’ | FRENCH, ENGLISH

One of Polanski’s more personal and justly more famous films sees him as the protagonist in the role of an economic migrant, an introvert trying to adapt to a hostile Paris, who realizes a chilling identification with the previous, tragically killed tenant of his apartment. Impressive closing of a trilogy that began with ‘Repulsion’ and continued with ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, which transcends being just a tremendously effective horror film by twisting towards a Kafka-esque thriller on urban paranoia, primal metaphysical fears and mental meltdown. L.K.

DIRECTOR: Roman Polanski
SCREENWRITERS: Roman Polanski, Gérard Brach
DoP: Sven Nykvist
MUSIC: Philippe Sarde
EDITOR: Françoise Bonnot
PRINCIPAL CAST: Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas, Jo Van Fleet, Rufus, Shelley Winters

ROMAN POLANSKI
Legendary Polish filmmaker, born in 1933. He is a Holocaust survivor, escaping from the Krakow ghetto. He studied at the National School of Lodz. His feature film debut came in 1962 with ‘Knife in the Water’. Five-time Oscar nominee, once a winner for Best Direction, he has been multi-awarded in every major international film festival.

FILMOGRAPHY (SELECTED)
2019 J'accuse
2010 The Ghost Writer
2002 The Pianist
1999 The Ninth Gate
1988 Frantic
1976 The Tenant
1974 Chinatown
1968 Rosemary’s Baby
1965 Repulsion
1962 Knife in the Water