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. Read more …
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.
It's a tale that could be played for laughs or squeezed for maximum tension and Ozon does both, neatly working multiple layers of intrigue and perfectly timed surprises into his screenplay.
Seductive, playful and psychologically dark, but ultimately a piece of arthouse voyeurism.
Civilised French comedy thriller.
Ozon weaves another spellbinding tale that mingles the real and imaginery with terrific effect.
Great stuff.
Instead of turning the narrative screw, In the House merely lollops to a halt, leaving the story not so much unresolved as incomplete.
A clever, witty elegantly effective French drama.
In the House is always diverting, but it becomes more like one of the light, slight strands of a recent Woody Allen film than the devastating mind-bender it might have been. In its last half-hour, Luchini keeps telling his pupil that his story needs a better ending. Most viewers will be thinking much the same.
The movie’s plot veers away from Hitchcock as often as it brings him to mind, but what the director manages artistically is a similar blend of the compulsive and the questioning – he holds up an idea and lets you contemplate it from every angle. You may find yourself straining to get the best view in the house.
Unthreatening, but still enjoyable.
Acrobatic wordplay only hides the vapidity so much.
Ozon's new film, the teasing comedy In the House, touches on a number of his recurrent concerns, among them the nature of creativity and stories within stories, and it is, I think, his best work to date.
One of French cinema’s foremost enfants terribles here finally grows up: this elegant and eloquent film weighs its words and images with commendably mature precision.
Profile: Francois Ozon, director of In the House
Francois Ozon: 'I'll admit I'm a little big twisted'
Francois Ozon: Why I Love British Actresses
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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