A meek Parisian clerk takes over an apartment whose previous occupant leaped out the window, and he gradually comes to suspect there is a conspiracy among his neighbors to drive him out the same window. It is tempting to see Roman Polanski's black comedy of urban paranoia as a companion piece to his Repulsion, only in the masculine gender, with Polanski himself playing the fretful, pitiful little hero. Really, though, it has as much in common with Neil Simon's Prisoner of Second Avenue. The main similarity between the two Polanskis is in the mechanical -- and very skillful -- management of fright gimmicks. This one, however, presents such a snake pit of queer characters and bizarre occurrences that there is no standard by which to gauge the hero's sanity, and all it adds up to is simply some nasty, kinky cackles for the viewer. A classy and fussy piece of work, with crowded, claustrophobic decors and chilly, grainy color (Sven Nykvist, photographer), but a bit of a miscalculation. With Isabelle Adjani, Shelley Winters, Melvin Douglas, and Jo Van Fleet. (1976) — Duncan Shepherd
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