The Tenant vs Lost Highway

The Tenant

Trelkovsky starts to become Simone Choule, the woman who lived in the flat before him. He orders her usual drink at the cafe, smokes her brand and puts on a wig and her dress. By the end he repeats her fall, so the double is what he fears he is turning into.

Lost Highway

Fred's wife Renee has a double in Alice, the mistress of the gangster Mr. Eddy, and Fred has a double in Pete, a young mechanic. Each double acts out what the original can't face. Pete gets the life of confident desire that Fred has lost.

The Tenant

The film ends where it began. Trelkovsky lies bandaged in the same hospital bed as Simone, and the early hospital visit plays again from his point of view. He lets out the same monstrous scream she did.

Lost Highway

The film opens with Fred hearing 'Dick Laurent is dead' over his intercom, and it closes with Fred saying the same line into the intercom himself. The repeat suggests he is stuck in a loop he can't escape. What you thought was a crime story becomes a trap.

The Tenant

The film gives Trelkovsky visions of neighbors playing football with a human head and hieroglyphs covering the toilet walls. You cannot tell if these are real or a fever dream. The doubt is what keeps the plot unsettled.

Lost Highway

You can't tell whether Fred is really sent to death row, imagining another life or both. Lynch never says. He lets the film leave you as lost as Fred is.