Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.5

The Tenant Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson August 5, 2020

After directing Chinatown to great acclaim in 1974, Roman Polanski was trying to get his swashbuckler Pirates off the ground but couldn't reach an agreement with either Paramount or United Artists to get it made. Fortunately, he came across Le locataire chimérique, a novel by Roland Topor originally published in Paris in 1964. In a new interview on this Scream Factory disc, Polanski says the book had been optioned by Paramount nearly a decade earlier under the title The Tenant. The novel indeed received an English translation and was published by Doubleday in 1966. Polanski, who co-wrote the screenplay with his frequent collaborator Gérard Brach, developed the production with Paramount's then-new CEO Barry Diller.

The Tenant, Polanski's ninth feature, is the third in his so-called "Apartment Trilogy," following Repulsion (1965) and Rosemary's Baby (1968). He often prefers to make his films in either confined settings or fixed locales and The Tenant is no different. The movie is set inside an old Parisian apartment building and courtyard built inside the studio in Epinay. Trelkovsky (played by Polanski) is a draughtsman who wants to rent a flat previously occupied by Simone Choule, an Egyptologist who inexplicably jumped through her window and plunged through a pane of glass below. Trelkovsky goes to the hospital to visit the all-bandaged Simone and also meets her friend, Stella (a de-glamorized Isabelle Adjani). Trelkovsky and Stella go out for drinks and to the local cinema to see Enter the Dragon. Back at his flat, Trelkovsky hosts a party with some rowdy friends. After another tenant complains about loud noise, Trelkovsky sends them off. In the days following, the curmudgeonly landlord Monsieur Zy (Melvyn Douglas) informs Trelkovsky that's he received additional complaints from other tenants about more noise coming from his flat. But something is adrift. Trelkovsky hasn't had many guests since and his unit has been quieter. Trelkovsky finds a hole in the wall with a long tooth. He has trouble sleeping and has visions of Zy, the Concierge (Shelley Winters), Madame Dioz (Jo Van Fleet), and others from the apartment confronting him and giving him sweaty fits. Is Trelkovsky merely hallucinating or are his experiences a byproduct of an apartment with a curse on it?

Polanski portrays Trelkovsky as a simple-minded and amiable man. It's these external forces and psychological barriers that put him on the precipice of psychosis. The Tenant boasts an eclectic mix of American and French actors who are uniformly excellent. Brach and Polanski's script contain a few weaknesses in plausible motives and actions by the characters. But any incongruities could also be explained by Trelkovsky's descent into madness and that he's seeing two versions of the same person. The Tenant has gradually built a stellar reputation over the years by cinephiles and should be looked at with similar esteem as other classics of the '70s.

The Tenant Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Scream Factory's release presents The Tenant in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50. It's a welcome sight to have the film back in its native ratio since the 2003 Paramount DVD and their European counterparts (all bare bones) were framed in 1.78:1, as was the Shock Blu-ray in Australia. While not a 4K restoration, this 2K transfer was prepared from what must have been a recent scan. The image is saturated with a drab palette dominated by browns and grays. Black levels are dense and the picture shows off a thick texture. There are some white speckles in the first reel but very few artifacts thereafter. Scream encodes the feature with an average video bitrate of 27993 kbps.

Scream provides a dozen scene selections for the 125-minute movie.

The Tenant Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream supplies a English DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono (1571 kbps, 24-bit) and a French DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono (1568 kbps, 24-bit). My research indicates that The Tenant was filmed and recorded in English. Isabelle Adjani delivered her lines in English but since they came out awkwardly, they were later dubbed by Kathryn Leigh Scott. I listened to both tracks and the restored monaural mixes sound very clear and crisp. Treble is sharp.

Philippe Sarde composed an unusual score that's strikingly effective. He wrote for wooden bass flutes, a string orchestra sans violins, and a solo clarinet. In the liner notes to Spanish label Quartet Records' soundtrack album, Sarde explains how he conceived the glass harmonica as a new instrument: It's made up of "a large mahogany trough full of empty glasses that the musician causes to vibrate after wetting his fingers." The music is often foreboding and dissonant, with the small orchestra holding long notes to ringing effect. The non-diegetic cue "Church" that Sarde wrote gets inside Trelkovsky's tortured mind and holds it as the camera cuts from a close-up of Trelkovsky to subjective images that flicker and then cuts back to his reaction. Sarde also wrote source music that's played at a party ("Dance at Robert's"). According to QR, the music was recently remixed and re-mastered from the original multi-track tapes for the album release and the score also sounds fresh on these two lossless tracks.

The Tenant Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• NEW Audio Commentary with Film Historians Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson - Howarth is the primary commentator here with Thompson occasionally giving his own observations and other times uttering vocalized, wordless affirmatives. These guys really know Polanski and his oeuvre. It would probably be even better if Howarth and Thompson each recorded his own track since they have so much to say. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Apartment to Let – An Interview with Co-Writer/Director and Star Roman Polanski (27:03, 1080p) - In this recent interview, Polanski explains the origins of The Tenant, how he first got together with Philippe Sarde, getting a camera operator for Sven Nykvist, using the Louma Crane, and Isabel Adjani. I like how the Polish auteur addressed the filming and distribution challenges of the era when movies were sometimes exhibited in Cinerama-friendly theaters and filmmakers had to take the screens' curved edges into consideration while shooting. Polanski speaks in English, not subtitled.

• NEW THE TENANT: An Audio Essay by Samm Deighan (20:20, 1080p) - the first screen warns: "This featurette contains spoilers for the film." Author and film critic Deighan delivers a scholarly commentary and formal analysis of The Tenant and its cultural antecedents. She discusses Gothic novels, the thematic tropes in Polanski's movie, and character analysis. Her spoken words are accompanied by footage from the film. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW The Invisible Performer – An Interview with Assistant Cameraman François Catonné (15:24, 1080p) - Catonné explains some of the mechanical duties of the cameraman, assisting Sven Nykvist, when he first read about The Tenant being made, the sets, lenses used, and the Louma. In French, with English subtitles.<

• NEW Keeping Continuity – An Interview with Script Supervisor Sylvette Baudrot (5:03, 1080p) - Baudrot compares Polanski to Jacques Tati and ways they're alike. She describes a scene in the apartment with the garbage can. In addition, she briefly touches on the bilingual script (English/French) that she supervised. Baudrot mentions some of the other directors she's worked under. In French, with English subtitles.

• NEW A Visit to the Locations of THE TENANT (11:02, 1080p) - David Gregory gives an on-camera tour of the Parisian locales used in the film and what they look like today. In English, not subtitled.

• Audio Interview with Writer Roland Topor by Journalist Frédéric Levy (1980) (6:08, 1080p) - Shout prefaces this archival audio excerpt with the caveat that the interview "was recorded on a dictaphone" so don't expect perfect sound. Topor was recorded in what sounds like a luncheon so one can hear wine glasses clicking, plates put away and voices. However, Topor comes across as loud and clear enough. He discusses his writing, his interest in the craft of filmmaking, working with Polanski, and his reaction to the adaptation of his novel. He also brings up his one regret with the movie and how it impacted the story's equilibrium. Shout accompanies his remarks with excerpts from The Tenant and a few photographs. In French, with English subtitles.

• Audio Interview with Screenwriter Gérard Brach by Journalist Frédéric Levy (1986) (4:32, 1080p) - Brach talks about his collaborations with Polanski and their working methods. He describes some scenes that he wrote for their films together. In French, with English subtitles.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:12, 1080p) - a restored (ca. 2009) anamorphic widescreen teaser trailer presented in 1.85:1 with voice-over and a cue from Sarde's score. This uses the MPEG-2 encode.

The Tenant Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'd been wanting to see The Tenant ever since Paramount first put it out on DVD but held off till a superior edition arrived. The wait was well worth it as Scream Factory's unofficial special edition easily tops the SD versions and Australian BD. The 2K transfer replicates the film's intended look and delivers two mono tracks that sound very clean to my ears. Bonus materials are at the level of Criterion's. I'm hoping that one day we'll receive a Director's Cut of Pirates (1986) and a US release of Death and the Maiden (1994). VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.