The Tenant is a 1976 psychological horror thriller directed by Roman Polanski, who also stars as Trelkovsky, a quiet and anxious man who rents an apartment in Paris after the previous tenant has attempted suicide. Based on Roland Topor’s novel, the film gradually turns a simple housing situation into a paranoid nightmare, as Trelkovsky becomes increasingly convinced that his neighbours are trying to transform him into the dead woman whose room he has taken over. The film is often grouped with Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby as part of Polanski’s so-called apartment trilogy, where domestic spaces become oppressive, unstable and psychologically dangerous.
The film was shot in Paris, and its atmosphere depends heavily on the contrast between ordinary city life and the increasingly nightmarish apartment building at the centre of the story. The exterior of Trelkovsky’s building was filmed at 39 Rue la Bruyère in the 9th arrondissement, with nearby streets and buildings adding to the claustrophobic sense of a neighbourhood that seems normal on the surface but hostile and watchful underneath. Other Paris locations include 11 Rue Carpeaux in Montmartre, while the bar across from the apartment building was filmed on Rue la Bruyère as part of the same local environment. Rather than presenting Paris as romantic or picturesque, The Tenant uses the city as a place of surveillance, social pressure and urban alienation, with stairwells, windows, courtyards and street corners becoming part of Trelkovsky’s growing psychological collapse.
Abbesses Metro Station
Abbesses is a famous, historic Paris Métro station on Line 12 in Montmartre, renowned as the deepest station in the network at roughly 36 meters below ground.
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