At what precise moment does an individual stop being who he thinks he is?

katiebendeliani

Roman Polanski's masterpiece – The Tenant succeeds to reach our hearts and makes us give further thought about multiple issues brought up in the movie. Simple in style, it is very dynamic. After watching the movie my first thought was that I did not care about the mystery that lies beneath it. I did not care about the plot twist in the end of the movie. I think this movie is important even without that mystery. The sense of loneliness, lack of communication, feeling of being driven by the society and a lot of other aspects makes this movie very valuable.Even though it was shot in 1976, I think it is even more important in our era.

The most important issue for me in this movie was the desire of all people in our lives to modify our behavior in accordance to their preferences. This egoistic attitude was most expressly demonstrated by Trelkovsky's obnoxious neighbors, who did not respect his private life and requested absolute obedience from him. But neighbors were not the only ones who did it. The same was done by Trelkovsky's friends. They mocked and criticized him for being weak and with this attitude made it even worse for him to cope with the difficulty of the situation. More than that, this modification gradually transformed into destruction of personality.

I loved the scene from Trelkovsky's friend's flat, where he demonstrates his supremacy to Trelkovsky when he clearly insults his neighbor who asked him to make the music low because his wife was ill. The friend tells Trelkovsky that he does not give a damn for his neighbors' situations and thus gives him advice to do the same thing. So where is the margin that lies between our private lives and infringement of other people's private lives by protecting our own.

What hurt me the most about the movie was that Trelkovsky tried so hard to be civil, tried to adjust to his neighbors' wishes and desires, did not want to engage in any conflict, but he was continually insulted. As if all people around him understood he was feeble and civilized and used this against him. Instead of opposing those who relentlessly insulted him, Trelkovsky hits the child who had nothing to do with it and finally goes mad. Watching all this happening was very hard.

And there are so many other issues you can go on and on about.

10 of 10. The movie is terrific.

score 10/10

katiebendeliani 1 December 2017

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3871621/