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Symbiotic relationship between tenant and apartment?


This is a tough film to grasp but, like Lynch, it resonates on a deep level. It makes sense intuitively but I’m yet to understand it consciously.

Like The Shining, it appears to be about a temporary living space which carries historical trauma in its walls. A new occupier moves in, only to find himself occupied by that trauma.

While there are no ‘ghosts’ in The Tenant, the apartment seems haunted and ends up possessing the tenant. Trelkovsky appears to go mad, but he is actually just sensitive, repressed and weak, and this seems to make him an ideal candidate for possession.

I think I’m hitting the broad strokes, be interesting to watch it again and see if the other abstract elements fit this theory.

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I believe it was said that Kubrick was inspired by this when making The Shining (and Barry Lyndon inspired Polanski to make Tess)

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