The Tenant

2014-12-15      The Tenant  

 

            'Drinks for everyone' a drunken character in The Tenant says it better as he storms into the local bar, carrying on - and cinexplicably speaking - more like a boorish North American than any Frenchman and then, pointing to a disconsolate companion of your man the protagonist and the film’s director Roman Polanski, 'everyone' comes the punch-line that hits Cin square in the solar plexus, for the boor might as well be speaking to and of / him, such is the quality of life lived under ®egime ze®o, 'everyone except / for him', ®egime ze®o drinks for veryone except / for him is all / we gots.

                            

            How dare you Dea® Dia®y, how dare you say / such things.  You can bring a sweaty ox to water, innit Coop, but you mustn't let  / him drink, for fear of offending / the haters.  Course 'you mustn't let grief' Romanski's tenant character says it better to his aformentioned disconsolate companion - everyone in this movie drinking heavily and rat-assed half of the time like everyone in every movie and in every waking hour on-screen and off in ever ever-loving place up on out on up on out on up on out on up on this Dog and Pony Show (that's enough -id.) on-screen and off - distraught over the death of the previous occupant of the tenant's flat in the movie, 'overcome you', it's as good a slogan as any, 'words of wisdom, Lloyd my man' - What Would Jack Say as Jack Torrence to Lloyd the Overlook Hotel bartender in Kubrick’s take on your The Shining, innit Mr. King - 'words / of wisdom', mustn’ting letting grief overcome you is all / we gots.

           

            How dare you Dea® Dia®y write such a horroreview as you did last night of The Tenant, reducing the plot of the movie to the diminutive protagonist and director getting an outside-the-pants half-baked hand-job whilst watching a Bruce Lee movie with the character played by the sublime and willowy Isabelle Adjani, twice again / the tenant's height.  Having run out of fresh movies to horroreview, and having exceeded his monthly download quota from his $100.00 / month service provider not half-way into the month, and having long ago cut / the cable as the slogan goes, (y)our man ©in the humble(d) narrator of this Take This Thing Back to Baltimore me-moirs and The Tenant, and not for the first or last time, is after videeing and horroreviewing the same movies again and again and again.

 

            There is a psychological angle to this movie that Cin missed the first / second time around, namely that ever loving person in the apartment building is out his / her mind, not only the title character, your man Polanski the tenant.  As a result your man the tenant's days and nights - after the first brief bout of irrational exuberance that he exhibits after finding a sweet sweet Parisian apartment - are filled the terror and horror, 'horror' Brando's Colonel Kurtz says it better in Coppola's Apocalypse Now, of two of the better tools to have in / your toolbox, 'and terror’, ho®®o® and te®®o® is all / we gots.

 

            'L'horreur' the French as always say the former better, it's a versatile expression, used over there to indicate approbation and / or disapproval, which they also express better over there, 'l'horreur' they will say it better when someone acts ‘comme un imbe©ile', (y)our man ©in  should know, for he has and he is.  There is much more horreur as the French know up on on out on up on out on up on out on up on out on this Dog and Pony Show than most of the rest of us care  to think about, which is why Cin loves / French films, un imbe©ile is all / we gots.

 

            Course your (wo)man the tenant has some other issues as well in this film, from the looks of it (s)he is becoming the previous tenant day-by-day and night-by-night, purchasing and wearing wigs and being short with the goofy, cinexplicably English-speaking waiter at the local bar.  Then (s)he hauls out and bitch-slaps a kid at the park, 'you little' the tenant says it better as the kid wails, 'brat', 'betise' is another great French word, it means literally 'beastly', what a beast / would do.

 

            Meanwhile, his / her neighbors back at his Champs Elysee apartment are having strange meetings and ceremonies in the courtyard, strange meetings and ceremonies to which (s)he has not been / invited, a feeling that Cin too knows all / too well (hooker please –id.).  Isabelle Adjani's character never throws the tenant out of course, not the first or last French beauty unable to throw Roman Polanski out / the room, even as the tenant tries to explain to her -correctly from the looks of it - that 'they're trying to turn me into / Simone', the previous tenant who snuffed it out the apartment window, not / ©invited to strange meetings and ceremonies in the courtyard is all / we gots.   

 

            It goes on like this for some time, 'I love you' the tenant says it better to Isabelle Adjani's character, not for the first or last time that Roman (that's enough -id.) - and even for an ostensibly French film, especially as its dialogue is written cinexplicably in English with mostly English and American actors not affecting French accents - it's not a line that's dropped in Paris like 'how are you', it's a line that's 'assuposed to have / significance in The City of Love ('Light', imbe©ile -id.).

 

            Soon enough (y)our (wo)man the tenant is after trawling around le Gare du Nord neighborhood morning noon and night, looking to buy a gun, and getting hit / by Peugots and Citroens.  It's all hallucination now, all / the time for your (wo)man the tenant, all dolled up as 'Simone' in the(ir) flat waiting for the wicked ceremonies in the courtyard to begin, no one knows if (s)he's dreaming or hallucinating, male or female, alive or dead, before off / (s)he goes from the balcony, you see it's all repeating again, everone who lives in that flat goes coo-coo / for coa-coa puffs at one time / or another, going coo-coo / for coa-coa puffs at one time / or another is all / we gots.

 

            It's pretty good, movie ends hard - with 'Simone' / Tcshovsksky the tenant having visitors at the hospital after jumping off the balcony for the umpteenth time and then screaming, just before the famous 'Paramount' mountain and studio icon end the film abruptly just / like that - ending hard and abruptly and just like that is all / we gots.

 

            Thanks for reading this Take This Thing Back to Baltimore me-moirs and The Tenant.