In the House – Film Review
Director: Francois Ozon
Starring: Fabrice Luchini, Ernst Umhauer and Kristin Scott Thomas
Released: 29 March, 2013
How do you make a film exciting? Add guns? Or explosions? Or, in the case of some recent films, add CGI witches, trolls, or Bruce Willis. When a film is described as a ‘thriller’, it often seems less than a stones throw away from typical action. Not so, with the French produced In the House. Set in a typical small town, with typical people in a typical situation. With a delicately measured dash of intrigue, this film elevates itself into one of the smartest and enticing thrillers you will see this year.
We follow the daily drudgery of secondary school teacher, Germain (Luchini), who has lost any remnants of passion for his job. Dull grey afternoons are spent teaching dull, uninterested students about literature, with no end in sight. A spark of interest is lit when he stumbles upon the work of gifted student Claude (Umhauer), whose writing talents suggest his potential for a great novelist….while his subject matter hints at the damaged mind of an amoral sadist.
The title of the film refers to the body of work that Claude, under Germain’s encouragement, submits as written exercises. He befriends another student in his class, Rapha, offering to tutor him in math. In doing so, he gains access to Rapha’s home and family life, which he chronicles, ending each section with a seductive ‘To Be Continued’. Affairs, money troubles, even each family member’s relationship with Claude himself are jotted down and presented for review.
What makes this such an intriguing concept is the manner in which Ozon presents these private events to the audience. You only see what’s going on In the House through what Claude has written. We aren’t given access to anything that he hasn’t seen or heard, which keeps us right on edge. Just as it is with Germain, these brief snapshots into a seemingly idyllic family life, which nearly always ends on a cliffhanger, will have the audience craving for more information, like a condensed Lost mini-series.
As the film progresses, certain peculiarities begin to arise. With nearly every segment that Claude submits, Germain criticizes in some way, offering advice in how to improve his narration. His alternating writing styles influence what we see in the house. This is made most apparent in an early sequence, in which Claude first describes a typical family scene from an objective viewpoint, then again from a more subjective and influential perspective. In doing so, we are shown the same scene twice, but with a very different tone. This is a wonderful little experiment in the art of film-making which really should have been explored further in future productions.
The performances of the main players are captivating, their charisma enthralling. Luchini, as Germain, gives off a faint Woody Allen vibe that blossoms explosively in one surreal scene that is reminiscent of his break-the-fourth-wall Annie Hall performances. Less talkative than Woody, however, his role demands a more somber tone, a presence that doesn’t overwhelm so that the audience may find him easier to relate to. He is an ideal canvas onto which we can project, voicing our concerns and desires without completely losing his own identity.
To aid in this, Luchini is paired with the ever brilliant Kirstin Scott Thomas, who plays his wonderfully complex wife, Jeanne. With her stern and only luke-warm personality, she initially appears to be stereotypically misunderstood and estranged from her husband. Shorty thereafter, we discover that she owns an art gallery that is constantly referred to as a sex shop, due to it’s quirky, if not bizarre, exhibitions. One such example features Hitlers head, fashioned out of papier machè, mounted atop a blow-up doll, the meaning of which she explains utterly po-faced. Essentially, she acts as someone with which Germain can react to Claude’s written adventures, yet she is given the dignity of a fully fleshed out personality, which is sincerely admirable.
Finally, we have Claude, a character who is kept deliberately closed off from the audience, and shrouded with mystery. More than once, the question of whether or not what he is writing has actually happened arises, and this lends his character, who is no more than 16, and a slight 16 year old at that, a menacing air. There is a sense of the Uncanny about him, that even though there is little to suggest this, that he is not quite of this world. He hangs about in doorways peering in, or at windows peering out, on many occasions, highlighting the delights of voyeurism that are central to this film. Ghostly images of the old Hitchcockian thrillers, such as Rear Window, or Peeping Tom, are brought back to the silver screen, and this callback is both eerie and welcome.
The film is not perfect however, as it makes one very particular and unfortunate mistake. As should be assumed, this is a film that frolics about within the fields of convolution.This field in question becomes quite expansive towards the finale, growing larger and more impressive in scale as it progresses. We are constantly guessing at what is going to happen next, the pace rapidly increasing with developments becoming increasingly outlandish. While this isn’t problematic per se, it raises the difficult issue of how to conclude such an ambitious project. While the ending itself may have been somewhat satisfactory at first, the director seems to have foreseen a potential anticlimax and makes a very obvious and disappointing attempt to cushion the blow. It’s one thing to lay out a safety net for a dangerous project, it’s quite another when all anyone can see is that safety net hanging right before their eyes.
Nonetheless, In the House remains an easy recommendation to make. It has some terrific performances as well as a great concept that hasn’t been done quite like this before. It’s engaging throughout, often funny and, aside from it’s cop-out ending, a very intelligent story that challenges its viewers preconceptions in wonderfully pleasing ways.
Score: 4/5
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