The Tenant

An apartment with an unhappy past, in a building filled with faintly sinister residents, sets the stage for Roman Polanski's riveting thriller The Tenant. Polanski plays Trelkovsky, a quiet, timid file clerk whose unremarkable life becomes increasingly overshadowed with dread and fear after he moves into his new home. Adding to his paranoia are the building's other occupants, who do nothing to alleviate his growing obsession with the untimely, tragic fate of the apartment's previous tenant.

Is Trelkovsky's dread truly justified or is it simply the result of his seemingly disintegrating mental state? A brilliant international cast (Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas, Jo Van Fleet, Bernard Fresson, Lila Kedrova, Shelley Winters) and Polanski's own talent for suspense and the macabre make The Tenant a haunting, riveting classic.