Director: Francois Ozon
Starring: Fabrice Luchini, Ernst Umhauer, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emmanuelle Seigner
Running Time: 105 minutes
Certificate: 15
Synopsis: A sixteen year-old boy insinuates himself into the house of a fellow student from his literature class and writes about it in essays for his French teacher. Faced with this gifted and unusual pupil, the teacher rediscovers his enthusiasm for his work, but the boy’s intrusion will unleash a series of uncontrollable events.
Francois Ozon’s interpretation of Juan Mayorga’s play, The Boy In The Last Row may sound like a peculiar tale from the onset, but IN THE HOUSE allows the audience to explore a thoughtful and often disturbingly dark comic journey which delves deep into the mind of an author.
The performances of both Ernst Umhauer as the boy writer Claude, and Fabrice Luchini as his teacher and maestro Mr Germain must be applauded, with their relationship reflecting not just teacher and student, but also father and son, shown beautifully by the director. Umhauer plays devious and creepy so convincingly that the audience will squirm in their seats when he breaks the fourth wall, dreading to think what is going through the young boy’s mind.
Described as, “The most bored woman in the world,” Claude seeks to free Esther (Emmanuelle Seigner) from her boring, unfulfilling suburban life. Using her family as his muse, Claude becomes obsessed with them as they construct his epic story and appease his apparent hunger and desire for a mother figure. With the Artole family becoming dolls to Claude and Germain, this is one of many metaphors Ozon plants throughout, with another being the ornamental dragon which hints at Claude’s hungry obsession. It’s small touches like this which really bring life to the film.
The obsession associated with a failed teacher and the young protégée he encourages unravels slowly along with the minds of the characters, questioning how far an artist is prepared to go to achieve their great work. Through the use of voiceover, Ozon cleverly seeps Claude’s story through the narrative, and as the audience follow the stories he writes for the Artoles, it becomes clear they are becoming more dark and sordid. As he preys on Esther, we are drawn into Claude’s mind and left to question whether we are viewing fact, or his fiction. Whilst this creates an intriguing and quite complicated narrative, the technique is used subtly to avoid confusion.
Though this may not be a film for everyone, the combination of Philippe Rombi’s chaotic suburban soundtrack, Kristin Scott Thomas and dark humour recalls a KEEPING MUM for high culture. IN THE HOUSE is undoubtedly an enjoyable and intriguing piece of art and film that guarantees many will be back for seconds.
IN THE HOUSE is released in UK cinemas on March 29th.
