Sometimes while seeing in a movie like this, we are wondered by the paranoia one goes through. It appears silly and preposterous. Well, what if paranoia ends up being true? The question might sound ridiculous if some one is reading this after they have watched the movie, but for a moment, this thought crosses my mind. May be not like Trelkovsky (Roman Polanski) but the concept of alien abduction or some one constantly watching. The film generates it to a believable level.
Trelkovsky is a Polish nationality who is now a French citizen. We see him polite and reasonable at the start of the movie. He strikes the reasonability with the owner of the building to rent an apartment. He comes to know about the suicide in it and visits the hospital where Simone, the one who committed suicide while living in the apartment is lying as that of mummy wrapped up completely. There he meets up with her friend Stella (Isabelle Adjani) and consoles her. In the meanwhile, he dines at the coffee shop and the owner out there says that Simone used to sit at the exact same place, drink chocolate and smoke a cigarette of different brand what Trelkovsky smokes. And in couple of days, Trelkovsky settles for coffee and cigarettes of same brand Simone used to. Something is happening here, there is a pattern.
Roman Polanski also directing the film has this way of focusing on the protagonist monologue sequence in a chilling manner. This is a horror but a genre of difference. We do not panic out of surprise. Witnessing Trelkovsky creating this world is scary. The film makes his paranoia a genuine one. The tenants are definitely strange. They may be insensitive and complaining but not Trelkovsky thinks. Continuously we are put in the place where nothing seems real. We have a definition of real, at least over the screen. Real is daylight. And Polanski does most of the sequence of in day light. We see the character is the most considerate and amicable person. So to turn him into a flight risk at some point of time is something to be worked upon on a steady manner. Polanski does not reveal the horror in a fashion we are known to. We live with Trelkovsky. The claustrophobic effect falls on us. While he is comfortable even with some strange happenings around him, Polanski creates the tiring dullness in this small apartment. The apartment is threatening. It appears normal but the way Polanski shows it is creepy. The stained walls behind the closet, the sink and the window of all are as alive as he wants it to be.
In the process we turn out to be going through the transformation along with Trelkovsky. We do not believe what he is seeing and still the feeling is transferred. And when his world is chaotic and uncontrollable, we go chaotic even knowing that his are paranoia. Knowing something is not real and yet you are afraid is chilling. We are scared what Trelkovsky might do to himself or others.
As the end approaches, knowing the paranoia the character goes through we are sure there is going to be a tragic suspense. We are petrified by that expected tragedy. We do not want such a nice person as Trelkovsky hurt himself. Polanski manages to sustain it till the end. And at the end of it, we feel relieved. Not because it is not a tragedy but something more than that. From a chilling horror story we see the movie migrating into a level of non-existence presence of mind. The end raises many questions of incomplete plots. It does not matter whether it is complete or incomplete. Polanski does what the movie genres itself, psychologically terrifying.
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