Line #27 Film/TheTenant


1	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
2
3	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_tenant_1976_film_poster.jpg]]
4
5	->''"How could he escape from his nightmares?"''
6	-->-- '''Tagline'''
7
8	''The Tenant'' (French: ''Le locataire'') is a 1976 PsychologicalHorror film directed by and starring Creator/RomanPolanski, along with a supporting cast that includes Isabelle Adjani, Creator/MelvynDouglas, Creator/JoVanFleet, Bernard Fresson, and Creator/ShelleyWinters.
9
10	Trelkovsky (Polanski) has just moved into a Paris apartment, where the previous tenant committed suicide by leaping to her death. Now, he's starting to think his new neighbors are trying to push him to the same act. As for the audience... well, we don't know ''what'' to think.
11
12	Shot in France, this is the third film of Polanski's so-called "Apartment Trilogy", following ''Film/{{Repulsion}}'' and ''Film/RosemarysBaby''. It is also the last film he made prior to his arrest and conviction for statutory rape, and his subsequent flight from justice (and from the United States), a year later.
13
14	----
15	!!'''This film contains examples of:'''
16	* BandageMummy: Simone Choule, the unfortunate former tenant whose rooms Trelkovsky are taking over. She has a BandagedFace as well as a leg and an arm in cast. [[spoiler: Also Trelkovsky, in the end.]]
17	%%* BeingWatched
18	* BewareTheNiceOnes: Trelkovsky is a quiet and unassuming man at first, but once he starts having his strange occurrences, he proves to be quite capable at snapping at anyone.
19	* CircleOfShame: The laughing crowd before [[spoiler: Trelkovsky decides to jump]].
20	* CreepyCrossdresser: Trelkovsky ends up getting made up as a woman. It certainly looks creepy on him.
21	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Trelkovsky feels [[{{Gaslighting}} gaslighted]] by his neighbors up to the point where he can't take it anymore and jumps from his window.]]
22	* EatTheCamera: The last shot of the film has the camera [[spoiler: descending into Trelkovsky's mouth as he screams in his hospital bed]].
23	* TheFilmOfTheBook: Polanski adapted the script from a short novel by French humorist Roland Topor.
24	* GainaxEnding: [[spoiler: Trelkovsky is bandaged up in the same fashion as Simone Choule in the same hospital bed, but we see his and Stella's own visit to Simone. Trelkovsky then lets out the same disturbing cry that Simone had screamed.]]
25	* {{Gaslighting}}: What Trelkovsky believes his neighbors are trying to do.
26	* LookBothWays: Trelkovsky is hit at night by an elderly couple driving a car.
27	* MindScrew: The protagonist observes increasingly weird events, including his neighbors standing in the toilet for hours, the toilet covered with Egyptian hieroglyphs, his neighbors playing football with a human head, and a double of himself standing at his apartment window. It is never made clear how much of this is a result of SanitySlippage and how much is actually real.
28	* MundaneHorror: Basically the gist of the film (and the whole "apartment trilogy") is that the strange events take place in a mundane setting (an apartment building) and some of them, while weird, are in the realm of possibility (like his neighbors standing in the toilet for hours), although things get progressively weird as the film progresses.
29	* ParanoidThriller: The protagonist gradually goes off his rails, believing that his neighbors are conspiring against him. It is never clarified whether it was all a delusion, or something sinister is really going on at the apartment complex.
30	* SanitySlippage: The protagonist gradually goes off his rails, believing that his neighbors are conspiring against him. It is never clarified whether it was all a delusion, or something sinister is really going on at the apartment complex.
31	* SingleIssueLandlord: For Trelkovsky's landlord, Monsieur Zy, just don't make noise.
32	* TheToothHurts: Trelkovsky apparently pulls out two of his own teeth.
33	* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: It is pretty clearly established in the film that it is true for at least some incidents Trelkovsky sees as happening to him, but how many exactly is anyone's guess.
34	%%* WhiteCollarWorker
35	* WouldHurtAChild: An increasingly paranoid Trelkovsky slaps a crying little boy in a park.

Context Film / TheTenant