Over rated?

Maybe the movie is not your cup of tea, but I encourage you not to write it off just yet. In my case, it took years between viewings before I realized that it's an atmospheric mystery where a final answer isn't given because there is more than one possibility.

For instance, Trelkovsky is portrayed as this quiet, innocent man. He is scolded for making noise (he's told about a tenant who moves furniture at all hours); the neighbours spy on him from the communal bathroom; he wakes up to find his face covered in make-up; and he awakens on another occasion to find his mouth bloodied and a tooth missing. He seems entirely persecuted and victimized.

But look more closely and we see signs that he blacks out and has no recollection of his actions.

(1) We see him moving a wardrobe in his apartment, scrupulously careful not to make noise doing it. But is he really so quiet and careful? Maybe HE is the tenant who obsessively moves his furniture at all hours of the night.
(2) He thinks the neighbours spy on him; but he's the one sitting in a chair at his window with a pair of binoculars spying on THEM.
(3) He thinks the neighbours are trying to turn him into Simone Choule, applying makeup to him while he is asleep. But recall a few scenes before that when he is going through the dead woman's clothes and makeup; forward a couple more scenes and he's trying on her nail polish. By the time he's seen with lipstick and eye shadow, we can conclude that it was HE, not the neighbours, who dolled himself up this way and that he has suppressed his memory of doing so.
(4) And recall what happens when he discovers that his tooth has been taken out. Several scenes before that, he arrives home after telling Stella about the tooth he found in the wall. He examines his face and jaw in the mirror, as if he's wondering how to extract his own tooth. Later, when he wakes up with a missing canine, we can again conclude that HE did this himself, but without any conscious recollection.

Trelkovsky is ashamed of his actions; he represses them. When he's at Simone's funeral, listen to how the words of the priest become distorted into an accusation. He is so vile that his soul won't even be admitted to heaven after he dies. What else has he done that he's trying to hide? More evil things... like murder?

... More scary stuff is there; it's just not spelled out for us. I think it's meant to haunt us incrementally.

Very.

You mean you forgot cranberries, too?

[deleted]

a movie about paranoia. although it's kind of ridiculous how the lead character deals with said paranoia.

obviously, he was written to behave in an unrealistic manner to tie the film up with the stupid hallucination at the end.

there was no reference that this guy had any prior mental health issues. so why the sudden insanity? not explained, just a vague, pretentious mess.

the fact that someone compared this to david lynch is downright laughable. when lynch's stories make more sense then this, you know it's crap.

Sounds to me that you're trying not to like the film. And overrated is one word.

I think this topic shows up on every message board on IMDb. Does anybody really give a damn what a film is "rated?" If you didn't like the film, fine, but why be aggreived that others did? You are never going to find some mythical "perfectly objective" rating of quality, because we all respond differently to things. If something scared you, it's scary. It doesn't matter that that thing doesn't scare me-it doesn't make my assesment right and yours wrong. If you laugh at a joke, it's funny, FOR YOU. One can spend all day arguing that the joke objectively wasn't funny, and it'll be wasted breath.

-There is no such word as "alot."

Polanski has come out with some real stinkers, but his early movies are very well executed. I thought this movie was his absolute best but the credit for the story goes to Roland Topor. Either way though this is probably my favourite movie.

Try underrated, heavily. I meet very few people that know of this masterpiece.