In the House (Dans la maison) is a 2012 French drama film directed by François Ozon, starring Fabrice Luchini, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ernst Umhauer, Emmanuelle Seigner and Denis Ménochet.
Germain (Luchini) teaches literature in a high school. He generally despairs over the poor writing skills of his pupils, so he is suprised when one of them, Claude (Umhauer), hands in a well-written assignment about his week-end. Germain realizes that Claude has a gift for writing and he decides to help him to improve his style.
Not to be confused with the sitcom of the same name.
In the House provides examples of:
- Coming of Age Story: Subverted. Germain asks Claude if he intends to write a Bildungsroman. Obviously, this is not the purpose of Claude's writings. Yet, the film does show the evolution of Claude's romantic relationship with Esther and friendly relationship with Rapha Junior, but unlike in coming of age stories, the protagonist does not learn anything over the course of the story. He seems to be a natural born manipulator, who understands very well the others' feelings from the start.
- Driven to Suicide: According to Claude's text, Rapha Junior committed suicide after seeing Claude kissing Esther. Subverted, because it is revealed to be false.
- Enfant Terrible: Downplayed because Claude is a teenager and not a child, but he manipulates several people just for his own amusement and does not care if he hurts their feelings, ruins their career or marriage.
- The Film of the Play: The film is a loose adaptation of El chico de la última fila (The Boy in the Last Row), a play by Juan Mayorga.
- Gratuitous German: Claude knows German and he translate for Esther the titles of paintings by Paul Klee (Zerstörung, Unterbrechung, Hoffnung and Rettung). Germain also asks Claude if he intends to write a Bildungsroman (a coming of age novel).
- Likes Older Women: Claude, a high school pupil, is attracted to Esther, the mother of one of his classmates. He also finds Jeanne, the wife of his literature teacher, attractive.
- Manipulative Bastard: Claude manipulates the family of his classmate Rapha, as well as Germain, his teacher. In the end, Germain loses his job and his wife because he was manipulated by Claude.
- Missing Mom: Claude's mother left the household when he was a kid.
- Most Writers Are Writers: The main characters are a literature teacher who gave up writing and a beginning author.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. Both Claude's classmate and his father are named Rapha (Raphaël) Artole.
- The Place: The house is the one of the Artoles, where almost everything that Claude writes happens.
- Postmodernism: The film includes discussions about what makes a good story. Germain lectures Claude about narrative structures. A large part of the film is made of Claude's narration, which directly puts Germain's lectures into practice. Moreover, it is never clear if what Claude writes really happened in universe or if he imagined it.
- Shout-Out: Germain is a literature teacher and he mentions many authors, in particular Gustave Flaubert (the school where he works, incidentally, is named after this writer), Charles Dickens, Anton Chekhov, Robert Musil...
- Stacy's Mom: Claude, a high school pupil, has a crush on Esther, the mother of one of his classmates.
- Stalker without a Crush: Claude stalked the Artoles last year. He watched them in their house from a bench in the park. (At that time, he did not seem to be attracted to Esther yet, he just wanted to watch the life of a normal family.)
- Stepford Smiler: Claude is initially attracted to the Artoles because they are a normal family that does not seem to have any problem. Yet, he quickly figures out that they have some problems. Esther, in particular, is bored with her life and probably takes antidepressants. This explains why she is receptive to Claude's advances.
- Student–Master Team: Germain, who is himself a failed writer, decides to help Claude, a beginning author, to improve his style.
- To Be Continued: Used In-Universe by Claude: each of his texts ends with this phrase, which prompts Germain to ask for the next instalment.
- Unreliable Narrator: It is never clear if what Claude writes really happened or if he imagined it.
- Voiceover Letter: When Germain or his wife reads Claude's texts, we hear Claude's voice reading the text.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Downplayed because Claude is a teenager and not a child, but he is intelligent and mature for his age. He manipulates a teacher, a classmate and his parents easily.
- Writers Suck: Germain wanted to be a writer, but his book was a flop so he gave up writing. Now he is an embittered literature teacher.
