In the House

2012 [FRENCH]

Action / Drama / Mystery / Thriller

21
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 84% · 82 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 84% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.3/10 10 35773 35.8K

high school teacher teen angst male homosexuality school writer

Plot summary

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.

Director

François Ozon Photo
François Ozon

Top cast

Kristin Scott Thomas Photo
Kristin Scott Thomas as Jeanne Germain
Emmanuelle Seigner Photo
Emmanuelle Seigner as Esther Artole
Mehdi Meskar Photo
Mehdi Meskar as Un élève du lycée Flaubert
Denis Ménochet Photo
Denis Ménochet as Rapha Artole père
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
966.34 MB
1280*682
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   tr  
24 fps
1 hr 45 min
Seeds 6
1.94 GB
1920*1024
French 5.1
NR
Subtitles us   tr  
24 fps
1 hr 45 min
Seeds 6

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by BeneCumb 8 / 10

Stylish and distinctive, with moments making you giggle

This awkward and witty film is based on the play The Boy in the Last Row by Juan Mayorga, i.e. the script emanates from a solid creation. The run of the events is smooth, but sometimes it is tricky to follow the line between truth and fantasy, including the ending scenes, and some deeds remained mystery to me. In spite of serious topics touched (e.g. alienation, growing pains, loneliness, generation gaps), there are several funny scenes, particularly gallery-related ones, and strong performances provide additional value to the film (Fabrice Luchini as Germain Germain, Ernst Umhauer (skilfully depicting an 16-year-old while being 22) as Claude Garcia, Kristin Scott Thomas (in fluent French) as Jeanne Germain, Emmanuelle Seigner as Esther Artole - in particular). Hopefully, no remake will be made, as the sound of French and supposition of Frenchmen are just appropriate for such a film.Recommended to all those fond of films with twists and not afraid of subtitles.
Reviewed by barryrd 8 / 10

Provocative, romantic and unconventional

Francois Ozon is the director of this provocative and unusual film that takes the viewer inside the minds of the characters. It is not a traditional movie with a beginning and an end but a study of a period in the lives of different people. In this movie, a high school student named Claude catches the attention of his teacher named Germain, through an essay that explores the family of another student, named Raffa. Claude has begun to tutor Raffa in mathematics. At first the teacher, as the student's mentor, is hesitant about the breach of privacy with this series of essays but succumbs to the the temptation to become a voyeur. Each essay ends with the notation...To Be Continued. Both student and teacher are seen as outsiders in their own worlds and are strangely attracted to the family. The student gently mocks the family he is observing as dull and middle class. The teacher can understand this estrangement from their world because Claude is from a different world and the teacher himself is something of an outsider in his own world. He encourages the boy to continue his writing because he feels the boy has potential as a writer. As the movie goes along, we see the family of Raffa behaving as many other families pursuing money and status. The boy and his father are both named Raffa so they become the Raffas (plural). The student has a romantic interest in the mother, who seems to be the real reason he wants to explore the home. The desire for sexual encounters is present throughout the movie and seems to come out in a few surprising and light hearted episodes. We also see how Raffa and Claude interact with their teacher and the other students and their own families. The wives of Germain the teacher and Raffa Sr. are also interesting with one a traditional woman handling the domestic lives of the two Raffas. Meanwhile, Germain's wife manages an art gallery for two wealthy sisters, who she is trying to keep happy by making the gallery profitable. The movie is an interesting view of modern angst with the pressures to conform competing with the desire to be independent and on occasion, straying from the accepted standards. All in all, it is a provocative look at the different lives of people who interact and occasionally come into conflict. At the end, we see the message: to be continued.
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