Again, not the maestro Roman Polanski's greatest film or performance (Chinatown is untouchable and his two tiny scenes in that movie are a perfect example of how to impact a film with less than three minutes of screen time), The Tenant, the third film in Polanski's Apartment Trilogy after Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby, is nevertheless a fine picture, led admirably by Polanski in his most significant acting role (he tends to stick to bit-parts, especially in his own work). Absolutely panned on release, The Tenant has since gone on to become a cult-favourite, the film continuing to climb Polanski's canon to the point where many, including me, now consider it to be one of his quintessential works - not quite up there with Chinatown or Rosemary's Baby or Knife In The Water, but certainly gaining ground. Steeped in classic Polanski tropes - urban paranoia, the slow descent into madness, Kakfaesque woe - The Tenant is too a technical achievement, with fantastic camerawork from Sven Nykvist (a regular DoP for Ingmar Bergman) and a haunting score from Philippe Sarde (a prolific composer who would later provide the music for Polanski's Tess).
