In the House

Name: In the House
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Released: April 19, 2013
Duration: 105 min
Rating: 72
Cast: Bastien Ughetto, Catherine Davenier, Denis Menochet, Emmanuelle Seigner, Ernst Umhauer

2013

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Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Ratings

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7.4

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7.4	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Cohen Media Group | Release Date: April 19, 2013 | Not Rated

Starring: Bastien Ughetto, Catherine Davenier, Denis Menochet, Emmanuelle Seigner, Ernst Umhauer, Fabrice Luchini, Jean-François Balmer, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vincent Schmitt, Yolande Moreau

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Claude insinuates himself into the house of fellow high school student Rapha, writing about his family in essays that perversely blur the lines between reality and fiction for his jaded literature teacher Germain. Intrigued by this gifted and unusual student, Germain rediscovers his taste for teaching, but the boy’sSixteen-year-old Claude insinuates himself into the house of fellow high school student Rapha, writing about his family in essays that perversely blur the lines between reality and fiction for his jaded literature teacher Germain. Intrigued by this gifted and unusual student, Germain rediscovers his taste for teaching, but the boy’s intrusion sparks a series of uncontrollable events. [Cohen Media]… Expand

Director: François Ozon

Genre(s): Mystery, Thriller

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 105 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Empire Guy Lodge

Apr 15, 2013

Ozon weaves another spellbinding tale that mingles the real and imaginery with terrific effect. Read full review

Kimberley Jones

May 15, 2013

In the House, from the eclectic French filmmaker François Ozon (Under the Sand, 8 Women), is an almost perverse delight, an egghead thriller that slyly shell-games its truer purpose as an inquiry into the construction – and deconstruction – of fiction. Scratch deconstruction: Make that tear-the-house-down demolition. Read full review

Betsy Sharkey

Apr 18, 2013

François Ozon can usually be counted on for dark irony of the juiciest sort...But the filmmaker has an especially deft touch when a dash of comedy is mixed in. He uses this to delicious effect in his latest, In the House. Read full review

McClatchy-Tribune News Service Roger Moore

Apr 29, 2013

For all its pleasures, as Germaine nudges Claude toward that “ideal” ending that will make the reader say “I never saw that coming” and “It could not have ended any other way” at the same time, one only wishes this absorbing but melodramatic film had taken that advice. Read full review

Anthony Lane

Apr 22, 2013

It seems not just against the odds but against the laws of nature that a film as bookish, as suburban, and as self-consciously clever as In the House should also be such fun. Read full review

Rene Rodriguez

May 9, 2013

In the House seems to be building toward a cathartic and unexpected finale. Instead, you get a baffling fizzle — an inexcusably limp and unimaginative conclusion that doesn’t bring a single plot strand to a satisfying end. Read full review

Eric Hynes

Apr 16, 2013

Characters seem less entrapped by their desires than by plot necessities — a fact that’s not redeemed by Ozon’s winking self-awareness. Read full review

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User Reviews

lasttimeisaw

Apr 24, 2013

Haven’t been tracking Ozon’s output for awhile (his previous entry for me is TIME TO LEAVE 2005, 7/10), IN THE HOUSE apparently heralds a pleasing return with his most confident pace and killing panache, delineates a spellbinding yarn withholds which part is really happening and which partHaven’t been tracking Ozon’s output for awhile (his previous entry for me is TIME TO LEAVE 2005, 7/10), IN THE HOUSE apparently heralds a pleasing return with his most confident pace and killing panache, delineates a spellbinding yarn withholds which part is really happening and which part is our young writer’s fancy imagination.

Slickly shot, the opening upbeat instrumental tune brings viewers instantly to the scenario of a joint action between a high school teacher (Luchini), a has-been below-bar writer and his finest pupil (Umhauer). With mutual assent, Umhauer (comes from a broken family and has to tend his maimed father all by himself) is encroaching one of his classmates’ (Ughetto) domestic domain using the practical stalking horse remedial lessons after school for the latter, whose perfect bourgeois life represents everything he is craving for, mostly a sensual middle-aged mother (Seigner). So he is writing down everything as a serial, detailing (fictional or not) what is happening inside the model family, and the teacher promises to read it, correct it, advice him how to become a real writer.

Obviously from the very first chapter, Luchini has been intoxicated by the story (after a serial of disasters from the retrograded youth, Umhauer’s writing could never be more fetching), so is his wife (Thomas), a middle-class gallery owner who is in a dire situation and might lose the gallery if her new collection fail to please her new boss, twin sisters played by an unrecognisable Moreau. As we all fully aware, things will go haywire, and the reverberations will boomerang on someone, and in this case, it is Luchini himself, his life will disintegrate eventually.

Borrowing Umhauer’s confession of using the present tense in his works, the film per se contains a certain present vibrancy which is extremely audience-friendly, engaging with a hefty gush of dialogs among its main characters (Luchini with Umhauer, Luchini with Thomas, and Umhauer’s self narrative), whether it is florid edification, or common conversations, all fittingly satirise the banality and futility of the status quo one is facing or trapped, like it is said in the film, literature and art cannot teach a person anything, we learn by simply living our lives.

“Falling for your best friend’s mother” is a gimmick always has its broad market, especially for a motherless young boy in his puberty, the otherwise corny infatuation here has been ingeniously conflated with a voyeuristic angle for Luchini/Thomas and all its viewers, with its ambiguous credibility, it plays out appositely under Ozon’s helm, leaving every on-looker chewing on what has happened and anticipating the twist.

Speaking of the twist, whose concoction is not so fully-developed, but anyhow it is a pleasant achievement, one’s seemly stable life can be undermined into a tailspin just like that, it is cinematic, but also cautionary.

Luchini embodies his character with wry self-knowledge, loquacious cadences, swankily entering my top 10 BEST LEADING ACTOR race. Umhauer is the opposite youngster, scrawny, reserved but occasionally glistens with a sinister grin, a very well casting choice. Thomas has really found her way in her French-speaking realm and Seigner, enclosed by a perpetual aura of ennui even during the squabble with her hubby (Ménochet), by comparison, underplays herself and looks like she needs a good rest.

The film ends with a fabulous mise-en-scene, various characters occupied by their own business (a protruding one involving two gun-shots), and we (like Luchini and Umhauer) occupy the front row, relish the privilege of peeping other peoples’ lives, colourful, vivid but never satisfied.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Christopher_G2

Sep 14, 2015

In the House is a French film by director Francois Ozon about a student teacher relationship that starts off oddly, and as it evolves gets stranger along the way. The trigger of their connection involves a paper the student writes for an assignment about his weekend, which involves a visitIn the House is a French film by director Francois Ozon about a student teacher relationship that starts off oddly, and as it evolves gets stranger along the way. The trigger of their connection involves a paper the student writes for an assignment about his weekend, which involves a visit to a family’s house, one of a classmate who he’s tutoring. Then he writes another paper and then another, all about his stories in this house, and it becomes as if he’s part of their family, the kind he would like to have. The teacher is hooked reading the stories, and encourages more writing, thus requiring more visits, trying to get him to improve his writing technique. The student along the way gains a crush for the classmate’s mother. One of the keys to the effectiveness of the film is a woman played by the actress Kristin Scott Thomas, the wife of the teacher. She observes and comments interestingly on this situation, for which her sole connection is listening to or reading the stories the kid has written. She too wants to see more, but also seems to be with the distance she maintains the most sensible one; though she’s not beyond certain judgements. In essence she looks at the unreasonableness of both her husband and a student in their actions much as the audience does.

If it seems a little complicated don’t worry: explaining the entire premise of the film is much more exhausting than watching it occur. It’s entertaining, equal parts funny and dramatic, how it all plays out. In the House is an original film, and while it does have a premise that slightly stretches plausibility, and a few minor issues hamper it’s ending, it will make one think and reexamine many parts and allow one the experience that makes its flaws more forgivable.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

kino_avantgarde

Nov 18, 2022

Based on Juan Mayorga's play "The Boy in the Back Row", the film is reminiscent of Woody Allen's style with its layered plot.

It's the story of two people and their up and downs in their teacher and student identities, both trying escape to their ideal, in pursuit of reaching their ultimaBased on Juan Mayorga's play "The Boy in the Back Row", the film is reminiscent of Woody Allen's style with its layered plot.

It's the story of two people and their up and downs in their teacher and student identities, both trying escape to their ideal, in pursuit of reaching their ultima thule. The fiction they need in this escape sometimes turns into reality, but after a point it gets out of control and becomes dangerous. There is a utopia that can never be reached, the existing ones are replaced as it is realized piece by piece, end it gets worse than the beginning. And the movie emphasises this fragility to the audiance. And the ending is not really satisfying, even very weak. Ozon's response: "I think the ending of the movie is clear. I did it on purpose; I wanted the audience to be able to imagine their own movie while watching it. They can imagine a darker ending if they want to." His references to art and literature are very good. I think the biggest hit of the movie is Ernst Umhauer, the lead actor.

Lastly, speaking of Woody Allen; 'Match Point' is the movie that the characters went to see in the cinema, another nice reference.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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