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The Tenant
Le locataire
1976 126 min France R 18+
★7.7
Thriller, Mystery, Drama
Director: Roman Polanski
🎭 Based on
«The Tenant»
Trailers
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Description
A quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in Paris where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.
US Gross:
$1.92M
Worldwide:
$5.1M
Starring
Roman Polanski
Actor
Isabelle Adjani
Actor
Melvyn Douglas
Actor
Awards
Cannes Film Festival 1976
— Palme d'Or
César Awards 1977
— Best Production Design
Key opinion
Le Locataire is widely recognized as a masterful psychological thriller that rounds out Polanski’s apartment trilogy with a chilling, Kafkaesque exploration of paranoia and identity loss. While most critics praise its claustrophobic atmosphere and precise direction, some viewers find its deliberate, surreal pacing and lack of traditional narrative resolution to be divisive.
| Cinematography | Sven Nykvist’s cinematography creates a striking, painterly atmosphere that effectively mirrors the protagonist's descent into madness. | |
| Acting | Roman Polanski delivers a compelling, realistic performance that serves as a physical anchor for the film's mounting psychological dread. | |
| Direction | The direction expertly builds claustrophobic tension and existential malaise, cementing its place as a significant entry in Polanski's apartment-themed trilogy. | |
| Pacing | The film's pacing is polarizing; some viewers find the deliberate, meditative build-up immersive, while others perceive it as meandering or dramatically inert. | |
| Ending | The ending remains a point of contention, with some praising its surreal, ambiguous nature as a thematic success, while others find the lack of clear resolution frustrating. |