In the House

Alfred Hitchcock meets Douglas Sirk in Francois Ozon's sly and stylish blend of melodrama and suspense that also serves as a cunning commentary on the seductiveness—and danger—inherent in storytelling itself. The central characters are French high school teacher Germain (Fabrice Luchini) and 16-year-old student Claude (Ernst Umhauer). A martinet who bemoans his charges' ever-diminishing writing abilities, Germain is struck by one of Claude's papers—a strange but compelling piece in which Claude describes his fascination with the “perfect” family of a classmate, detailing how he wormed his way into their home by offering to tutor the kid. Believing that Claude has real talent, Germain starts giving him private instruction—mostly acidic critiques of further installments in Claude's story. The teacher even helps strengthen Claude's ties with the family in order to keep the pages coming—while also suggesting possible plot turns in the cause of nurturing the creativity that he himself lacks. In the House expertly juggles these threads, chronicling Claude's ever-growing attachment to his supposedly surrogate family (especially the mother), while also charting Germain's ties to Claude, which ultimately endanger his own job (and marriage). The real question, of course, is what percentage of Claude's story is reportage, and how much is sheer fantasy? In the end, Ozon's visually impeccable film is more clever sleight-of-hand than probing existential observation, but it's wonderfully satisfying nonetheless. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “making-of” featurette (54 min.), deleted scenes (13 min.), a blooper reel (11 min.), a segment on the film's premiere at the Le Grand Rex theatre in Paris (7 min.), costume fittings (3 min.), a poster gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for an engaging foreign film.] (F. Swietek)