The Tenant

The Tenant (Le Locataire) is a 1976 psychological horror film directed by Roman Polanski, who also stars as Trelkovsky, a quiet Polish-born office worker searching for an apartment in Paris. He rents a flat previously occupied by Simone Choule, a woman who attempted suicide by jumping from its window. After moving in, Trelkovsky becomes increasingly disturbed by the behaviour of his neighbours and begins to believe they are conspiring to drive him towards the same fate. Isabelle Adjani plays Stella, a friend of the former tenant, while Melvyn Douglas, Shelley Winters and Jo Van Fleet appear as residents of the apartment building. Based on Roland Topor’s 1964 novel Le Locataire chimérique, the film was written by Polanski and Gérard Brach and is generally considered the final instalment in Polanski’s unofficial Apartment Trilogy, following Repulsion (1965) and Rosemary’s Baby (1968).

The Tenant (1976) was filmed in Paris and at Studios Éclair in Épinay-sur-Seine, with key locations in the 9th, 10th and 18th arrondissements. Principal photography took place between November 1975 and March 1976, with filming on actual Paris streets supplemented by elaborate studio sets. The central apartment building was represented by a property at 39 Rue la Bruyère, while its interior courtyard and apartments were reconstructed in Épinay-sur-Seine. Other locations included Hôpital Bretonneau in Montmartre, the former Les Halles market district, Abbesses Métro Station, Jardin des Tuileries and several cafés, shops and streets around central Paris.

The exterior of Trelkovsky’s apartment building was filmed at 39 Rue la Bruyère in the 9th arrondissement, a residential street between Rue Blanche and Rue Pigalle. The building appears early in the film when Trelkovsky arrives to inspect an apartment that may soon become available. The concierge, played by Shelley Winters, explains that its former occupant, Simone Choule, attempted suicide by throwing herself from a window overlooking the courtyard. Trelkovsky subsequently meets the landlord, Monsieur Zy (Melvyn Douglas), who agrees to rent him the flat after Simone dies. The entrance at 39 Rue la Bruyère and the neighbouring building at number 41 were used for the exterior street scenes, although the façades were modified for filming. The real buildings remain standing, making this one of the film’s most recognisable surviving locations.

Across the street, a café at 42 Rue la Bruyère became Trelkovsky’s regular bar, where he stops for coffee and cigarettes and gradually becomes disturbed by the behaviour of the proprietor and other customers. The café exterior was created using a temporary frontage, while its interior was filmed on a studio set. Several scenes show Trelkovsky entering and leaving the establishment, with the surrounding street and apartment building visible in the background. As his behaviour changes, the café owner begins serving him the same drinks and cigarettes preferred by Simone Choule, contributing to his growing sense that he is being forced to assume her identity. The café no longer exists at the address, although the location can still be identified through the surrounding architecture.

The apartment building’s interior was an elaborate construction at Studios Éclair, located at 10 Rue du Mont in Épinay-sur-Seine, north of Paris. Production designer Pierre Guffroy recreated the entrance hall, concierge’s lodge, staircases, apartments and enclosed courtyard, allowing Polanski to film the building’s increasingly disturbing interior without the restrictions of an occupied residential property. One of the most unusual features of the set was its use of a large mirror to create the illusion of additional storeys. The physical construction had only two levels, but the reflected image made the courtyard appear to extend much higher. This technique was particularly important for the shots looking up and down between the apartment windows and the courtyard below.

The reconstructed courtyard appears throughout the film, beginning with the elaborate opening camera movement that passes between the windows and introduces the building’s residents. Trelkovsky repeatedly looks across the courtyard towards the communal toilet, where he sees neighbours standing motionless for long periods. The same space becomes increasingly important as he begins imagining the residents watching him from their windows. The courtyard also provides the setting for the climactic sequence in which Trelkovsky, dressed in Simone Choule’s clothes, throws himself from his apartment window and crashes through the glass roof below. After surviving the initial fall, he returns upstairs and jumps again. The courtyard, windows and upper levels were all part of the controlled studio environment, rather than the actual building on Rue la Bruyère. Polanski later confirmed in an interview with the Cinémathèque française that he had chosen to reconstruct the building so that he could control the camera movements and staging throughout the interior.

Another important location is Hôpital Bretonneau at 23 Rue Joseph-de-Maistre in the 18th arrondissement. Trelkovsky visits the hospital after learning that Simone Choule is still alive, hoping to find out more about the woman whose apartment he intends to rent. He finds her lying in a hospital bed, heavily bandaged and unable to communicate. During the visit, he meets Stella (Isabelle Adjani), who has also come to see Simone. When the injured woman suddenly begins screaming, Stella becomes overwhelmed and leaves the room. The hospital, originally established in the early twentieth century, provided the location for these scenes, although the complex has undergone substantial alterations since filming.

Trelkovsky follows Stella outside the hospital through an entrance on Rue Carpeaux, where the pair decide to have a drink. They enter the former Select Bretonneau café at 11 Rue Carpeaux, directly opposite the hospital. The establishment appears as they sit together and discuss Simone’s condition, with Trelkovsky attempting to comfort Stella while concealing the fact that he never knew her friend. The hospital’s entrance gates are visible through the café windows, confirming the relationship between the two filming locations. The original café has since closed, and the premises have been converted to residential use. The nearby hospital entrance, identified in location research as 4–6 Rue Carpeaux, has also changed considerably since the 1970s.

After leaving the café, Trelkovsky and Stella walk through the Les Halles district in central Paris. The area was undergoing one of the largest urban redevelopment projects in the city’s history, following the demolition of the old wholesale market buildings in the early 1970s. The vast excavation site, popularly known as the Trou des Halles, appears behind the couple as they walk through the surrounding streets. Near the intersection of Rue Berger and Rue Pierre Lescot, Trelkovsky is approached by a persistent beggar who follows him and demands money. Another moment shows him stepping in dog excrement beside the temporary fencing surrounding the excavation. The enormous construction pit is visible behind the characters, with Saint-Eustache Church and the surrounding buildings providing recognisable landmarks. The area was subsequently redeveloped with the Forum des Halles shopping complex and has changed substantially since the film was made.

Trelkovsky and Stella continue their evening at Cinéma Concordia, formerly located at 8 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement. The cinema specialised in martial arts and action films, and the couple attend a screening of Enter the Dragon (1973), starring Bruce Lee. During the screening, they begin kissing and touching one another while another spectator watches them. The cinema entrance appears when they leave the building and Stella prepares to return home. Cinéma Concordia closed on 29 April 1986, and the former cinema premises were subsequently converted into a supermarket. The building’s location near Porte Saint-Martin remains identifiable, although the original cinema frontage has disappeared.

Another sequence takes Trelkovsky to the area around Rue Portalis and Rue de Madrid in the 8th arrondissement, where he spends an evening with Georges Badar (Rufus), a man who had been romantically interested in Simone Choule. The two visit Café de la Cigale at 124 Boulevard de Rochechouart, near the famous La Cigale concert hall. Badar becomes increasingly drunk as he describes his relationship with Simone and his inability to understand her suicide attempt. The evening ends at Abbesses Métro Station in Montmartre, where Trelkovsky leaves Badar at the station entrance. The station’s distinctive Art Nouveau entrance, designed by Hector Guimard, appears as Badar descends the steps. The surrounding Place des Abbesses and its historic entrance structure remain recognisable today, although the station has undergone alterations since filming.

The Seine provides another location during Trelkovsky’s increasingly troubled wanderings through Paris. He walks along Port Debilly, the riverside embankment on the Right Bank between Pont d’Iéna and Pont de l’Alma, where a group of homeless people are gathered beside the water. The scene shows him moving along the quay while the river and opposite bank remain visible in the background. The location appears again later in the film, this time without the same people present. Port Debilly lies below Avenue de New York in the 16th arrondissement, close to the Eiffel Tower, and much of the riverbank remains recognisable from the 1976 footage.

Another outdoor scene was filmed in Jardin des Tuileries, the historic public garden between the Louvre and Place de la Concorde. Trelkovsky sits near the large octagonal pond, where children are playing with miniature boats on the water. A young boy repeatedly demands that his mother retrieve his boat, becoming increasingly disruptive. Trelkovsky eventually loses patience and slaps the child, shocking the people nearby. The scene was filmed beside the actual Bassin Octogonal, using the surrounding gravel paths, stone edging and formal garden as the setting. The pond and much of the surrounding landscape remain substantially unchanged.

As Trelkovsky’s identification with Simone Choule becomes more pronounced, he begins purchasing women’s clothing and accessories. One of these scenes was filmed outside a shop at 20 Passage de l’Industrie in the 10th arrondissement, where he buys a wig. The passage is a narrow commercial street running between Boulevard de Strasbourg and Rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin, lined with older shopfronts and small businesses. The address remains associated with the sale of wigs and hairpieces, although the business currently operating there is not necessarily the same establishment that appeared in the film.

During the final part of the film, Trelkovsky attempts to escape his apartment and spends time moving through other parts of Paris. One sequence takes place around the intersection of Rue d’Alésia and Rue Raymond-Losserand in the 14th arrondissement. He abruptly leaves a taxi and runs towards the entrance to Plaisance Métro Station, convinced that he is being followed. The production filmed the station entrance and the adjoining commercial buildings, including shops that have since been demolished. Part of the surrounding block was replaced by Square Alésia-Ridder, opened after the film was made, although the Métro entrance remains in approximately the same position.

Trelkovsky subsequently checks into the former Hôtel de Bourgogne at 15 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin, close to Porte Saint-Martin. The hotel exterior appears as he arrives, enters the building and attempts to find temporary refuge away from his neighbours. The views from his hotel room were filmed from another building across the street at 10 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin, rather than from the actual hotel. The area also contains the former site of Cinéma Concordia, which had appeared earlier during his evening with Stella.

The street outside the hotel becomes the setting for another disturbing sequence when Trelkovsky, convinced that he is being pursued, suddenly runs into the road and is struck by a car. The accident was filmed on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin, with buildings at numbers 15 and 17 visible around the point of impact. As he lies injured, the film incorporates blurred views of the surrounding streets, including footage from Rue de Rivoli. These Paris locations were combined with the reconstructed apartment building at Studios Éclair for the final scenes, which return Trelkovsky to the same hospital room where he originally encountered Simone Choule.

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