Both directed by and featuring Roman Polanski, The Tenant is a deeply unsettling psychological thriller which charts a mild mannered man named Trelkovsky going completely bonkers. Trelkovsky moves into an apartment where a lady called Simone tried to kill herself by jumping out of the window. He goes to visit Simone in the hospital and meets her friend Stella. Simone is bandaged from head to foot and when he sees Trelkovsky and Stella at her bedside, she utters a terrible howling scream and shortly dies thereafter. In his apartment, Trelkovsky is bullied by the other residents - for hosting a noisy get together, supposedly having a woman round, making noise in general and not signing a petition. He sees neighbours just standing in the toilet (which is opposite him) staring at him. Trelkovsky becomes more and more agitated and paranoid. He adopts Simone's way of living, buys a wig and dresses up in her dress which is still in the cupboard. Trelkovsky believes the neighbours are goading him into committing suicide like Simone. One night, Trelkovsky is hit by a car. He isn't badly hurt but hallucinates that the car's driver and passenger are tenants from his apartment block. He goes home, dresses as Simone and throws himself out of the window, hallucinating that all the other tenants are cheering him on when in fact his suicidal act wakes them up. He manages to drag himself up to the apartment and throw himself out of the window again. The film ends with Trelkovsky in hospital covered from head to toe like Simone at the start of the movie. He lets out a blood curdling scream like Simone did. With The Tenant, Polanski takes his time to create his character Trelkovsky and build an atmosphere. Whenever he appears to be persecuted, we are unsure. Is this reality? Are the other tenants really picking on him? Or is it all in his head? The greatest crack ups sometimes have an air of ambiguity about them. Polanski is perfect in the role of meek, mild and boring Trelkovsky who gradually becomes more animated as his paranoia grows. The ending is psychologically devastating as we know that Trelkovsky has just plain cracked up - there is no conspiracy, no laughing neighbours clapping him on to his death. And the fact that he drags his broken body up the stairs again to have another go at killing himself is extremely disturbing to watch. Above all, it is desperately sad. A good companion piece to Repulsion which has a similar crack up - only this time it is a woman cracking up.