In the House Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

In the House Blu-ray Movie Review

. . .and now, for the rest of the story. . .

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 25, 2013

What is the qualitative difference between imaginative literature and “mere” reportage? That may seem like a question with an obvious answer, but is it? Some of our most iconic fiction writers were ones who were able to describe their times with almost journalistic fervor. Think of the great novels by Dickens, Hugo or Tolstoy—all rife with finely observed details that not only could have been real, in some cases they actually were, albeit tweaked slightly here or there for dramatic purposes. François Ozon, the French writer-director who left many audiences scratching their head in wonderment (if not outright befuddlement) with his Swimming Pool (evidently currently available on Blu-ray only in the hyperlinked Japanese edition), is back with more ambiguity with In the House, which Ozon culled from a play by Spanish writer Juan Mayorga. Once again Ozon plays with perception and reality, toeing that fine line between, well, literature and reportage and keeping the audience deliberately unsure of which is which. The story revolves around a tired and bored literature teacher named Germain (Fabrice Luchini) who discovers that a new student of his named Claude (Ernst Umhauer) has some innate writing talent. Unfortunately, Claude has been turning in voyeuristic essays concerning the family of Rapha (Bastien Ughetto), another boy in Germain’s class. Germain finds himself both enticed and disturbed by Claude’s supposed “journalism”, sharing the boy’s writing with his wife Jeanne (Kristin Scott Thomas) in an attempt to ferret out whether what he’s reading is “real” or not. In the House sets up a skewed array of various characters and then begins playing with them, and the audience, by repeatedly upending conventional storytelling techniques while developing a cinematic metaphor for a reader—or a viewer—investing content with their own subjective meanings.

In a series of escalating vignettes, each ending with an increasingly ominous “to be continued. . .”, Germain reads—and visualizes—Claude’s obsessive fantasies dealing with Rapha’s seemingly perfect home life, where Rapha is the adored only child of a somewhat bored interior decorator mother named Esther (Emmanuelle Seigner) and a hardworking, dumb jock- esque father, also named Rapha (Denis Ménochet). Rapha Junior has been having trouble with his math studies, a subject in which Claude excels, and Claude has volunteered to tutor the boy, which gives Claude a “golden ticket” inside Rapha’s perfectly appointed suburban home.

The first half or so of In the House merely sets the characters in motion, but it also deals—discursively at first— with the barely masked prurient interest Germain and Jeanne have in these slightly erotically charged essays of Claude (Claude has eyes for Esther, and she may have eyes for him, at least according to the essay). Germain attempts to channel Claude’s innate talents into more “appropriate” storytelling, but there’s the none too subtle notion that Germain isn’t that upset to continue reading about Claude’s adventures in Rapha’s home. Germain makes a rash decision in this first section of the film in order to supposedly “help” Claude, a decision that comes back to haunt the teacher in the film’s closing scenes.

The second half of the film begins to play more deliberately with narrative structure, an obvious callback to Germain’s instructions to Claude as to how more artfully frame the story he’s telling. Germain himself starts showing up in various vignettes as they unfold, offering advice to Claude, at which point the vignette changes. At first this technique is deliberately disruptive, but it becomes a more than fitting link in a voyeuristic chain that in fact stretches directly to the audience. As any given vignette unfolds, the audience is “creating” it along with Claude (and Germain, who typically is reading the description of what’s unfolding on the screen), only to have their figurative chain yanked as Germain pulls the narrative rug out from under Claude, forcing him to rethink how the “story” should go. The underlying question throughout much of this is in fact is this a story, or is Claude actually relating real events?

The performances here are pitch perfect. Luchini and Scott Thomas (once again proving she’s completely at home in French) make a perfectly believable middle aged couple who are confronting both the staleness of their marriage and the titillation that Claude’s essays provide. Seigner is typically lovely in a somewhat underwritten role that sees Esther as half Mrs. Robinson, half a kind of frustrated drudge. Ughetto and Umhauer are absolutely outstanding as the two boys at the center of the story. Umhauer has a sly presence that could either be outright snark or merely semi- innocent guile. Ughetto is superbly vulnerable and wonderfully comic at various moments.

In the House is deliberately deconstructive, offering neither a traditional thriller arc nor in fact a typical comedy of manners. Ozon repeatedly throws the audience curve balls, forcing a “meta” perspective on what’s going on and ensuring that viewers constantly question what they’re seeing and what it means. This is a dangerous gambit, but which mostly pays dividends as the story cartwheels toward a disturbing, but seemingly concrete, finale. The endgame here is perhaps the most problematic element of the film. We’ve been inculcated—seduced, really—into two hours of voyeurism, and when Ozon offers a panoply of new lives to spy on (in one of several tips of the hat to Hitchcock’s Rear Window Ozon offers), some may be left to wonder if what we’re seeing is actually happening or merely the latest visions of a febrile imagination.

In the House Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

In the House is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Media Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This high definition presentation offers a largely impeccably sharp and well detailed image, though Ozon has created a deliberately kind of drab palette here quite a bit of the time, perhaps to echo the barren interior lives of several of the characters. While occasional outdoor scenes pop with some nice colors, the overall look of the film is intentionally subdued. That said, fine detail is exceptional throughout, and contrast is consistently strong, segueing seamlessly between the sunny outdoor scenes and the many interior sequences.

In the House Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

In the House features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which is quite subtle most of the time, but which does offer nuanced directionality and immersion. The bulk of the surround activity tends to be split between Philippe Rombi's fantastic score (which hints ever so subtly at Bernard Herrmann some of the time) and nice utilization of ambient environmental noises. The film features a lot of narration or voice over, and those elements are of course anchored resolutely front and center. Dialogue is very cleanly presented with excellent fidelity. The sound mix here does not offer a wealth of dynamic range.

In the House Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making of Featurette (480i; 53:35) has some really fun rehearsal footage (why is Luchini outside in the woods, or is that merely his backyard?), along with lots of behind the scenes footage (French films evidently have superior craft services) and scenes from the film.


• Premiere at Le Grand Rex (1080p; 6:28)


• Bloopers (1080p; 11:00)


• Costume Fittings (1080p; 2:58)


• Poster Gallery (1080p; 1:33)


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 12:35)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:19)

In the House Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In the House asks many more questions than it ultimately answers, but that's part of what makes this film so incredibly provocative. Ozon seems to be telling one story, but it soon becomes obvious that the filmmaker is actually leading the viewer on a "meta" quest which in some ways is reminiscent of another legendary French filmmaker— Jean-Luc Godard. Ozon is actually less labyrinthine than Godard is at his most obfuscatory, but that doesn't mean things are laid out in neat little rows for the audience to assimilate without thinking. In the House defies categorization, so those wanting a rehash of quasi-thriller territory, a la Swimming Pool, may be slightly put off by this film's more deliberately whimsical character (one that is in fact perhaps a bit closer to Ozon's underrated 8 Women). But for those willing to invest time in a film that requires participation, In the House is a bracing experience and one well worth revisiting. This Blu-ray offers excellent video and audio and comes Highly recommended.