In the House

A Chinese watched this French film with English subtitle. Exotic plot and an enjoyable rhythmic narration. When Claus asked the teacher why he didn't have a son and stared at him. The ending of the film is not hard to guess.

Even though my French is rudimentary, I could hear Claude describe Rapha's family as "une famille normal". This phrase was incorrectly translated as "perfect family" since it's clear that "normalcy" was what he was yearning for in view of the fact that his mother had left him when he was very young and that he had to care for a paraplegic father. The family was "normal" but far from perfection. This is not a review. I'm just pointing out an imprecise word translation from French into English, which does affect the meaning of the movie's subtext. Shouldn't you take into account that not everybody wants to write a review but to point out certain inaccuracies? Also, your spell check should not try to correct the spelling of French words such as "famille".

Serious art-house territory as director François Ozon offers another film (his third) about writers. Young student worms his way into his best friend's house and family, observing and probing their bourgeois, middle class home. Sharing his voyeuristic streak, he writes stories about them and submits them to his composition teacher. Always ending, "To be continued ..." The teacher soon becomes absorbed, as does his wife, with whom he shares the stories. Maddening difficult to tell if the student's observations were accurate or partial. Were the stories clichéd, balanced, stereotyped? Was the teacher layering his own filters and fantasies? The house of cards narrative steadily teeters higher. Not exactly a thriller, but an unsettling ride.

I'm the one of those who think that any movie, despite it's message or sense or purpose, shouldn't be boring. And this one is so boring. Is it for old people? Over 80? It's partly comedy, no way! There's nothing funny inside. Thriller? Be serious! This is slow...hmm....drama. I don't know what's so dramatic in this movie. There's no reason for existence of such a movie. If You don't know what to do in next 2 hours, go to sleep or watch Your flowers growing, You'll spend better amount of time than watching this rubbish. Even acting, despite respectable crew, is nothing special. Nothing in this movie should attract attention. It's simply boring. Period.

The best French film I have seen. The performances by Fabrice Luchini and Ernst Umhauer were outstanding. It is difficult to say when the fiction overtakes reality.

Dans la maison (In The House) is a film about student who writes stories about his friend's private life to his teacher, and both of them became really immerse into his friend's private life. The premise is interesting and extremely well written and paced. It manages to kept your attention right from the beginning and throughout the film. Though, this film is kinda a meta to the plot itself as it feels like they don't know how to create an end. ''The secret to a good ending is when the audience says 'I didn't expect that, but it couldn't end any other way' ". I find the ending a bit lazy and underwhelming. The acting is decent, okay cinematography, very well cut. It's a good film overall. I would recommend a try if you like French film. 7.5/10.

Although the reviews and critics on the film have been quite positive and In the House actually deserves them in general and technical terms, its most acclaimed feature, the story plot, is not original at all. British writer Muriel Spark's last novel The Finishing School masterfully develops a similar story. I do not know whether the director or scriptwriter have taken their story from the novel or not. If they have, it would be, apart from a dishonest act of intellectual piracy, a rather sad and regrettable event. Sad because the film which has just won in San Sebastian has been strutting in front of thousands of critics and film lovers who should read more metaficition before writing proudly about the metafictional magic of In the House.