Le locataire (1976, France)

Roman Polanski produced the film, and played the shy and withdrawn bachelor Trelkovsky.

He takes a flat in Paris, but there is a mystery: the woman who rented the flat before him fell to her death from the window. The neighbours and the landlord all exert a malign influence over Trelkovsky, and he gradually assumes her persona, eventually dressing in her clothes; eventually he too, dressed as her, plunges from the window.

The version released under the title The Tenant has an American dialogue.

I thought Polanski looked less womanly when he was dressed than when he was in his male persona; maybe it's the wig; and his diction sounds compellingly like Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau.

HF January 2003

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