#8) In the House, by Francois Ozon (2012)

It’s okay, you can shame me for lacking diversity. This is the second French film on this list driven by sexuality and a plot that blurs the lines between reality and fiction. And while they may be bunched up on my list, I assure you, these kinds of films are rarely exposed to American audiences. They take us deeper into the psyche of our most primordial myths, when stories were quite literally merged with the reality of cultures, spirit animals serving as gods and sacrifices, fertility gods and goddesses making the rains fall and the grass grow.

Germain (Fabrice Luchini) is an English teacher, disappointed with a classroom that can’t write two sentences. Until he stumbles upon a budding young writer, Claude (Ernst Umhauer), who shares a first person story about a character obsessed with becoming part of another family, the Artole’s. After several entries, it becomes clear that Claude has legitimately cast himself in this story, delivering slightly embellished journal entries that have enough of a narrative to compel Germain from a storytelling standpoint. But it becomes clear that Germain’s interest is more than literary, as the two bond through a folie à deux, risking their necks to fulfill a fantasy that we’re never quite sure what either intends to do with. It’s an exercise in voyeurism, taking them both down paths that wind them up in trouble.

I like stories that can cleverly meld reality and fiction, art imitating life or life imitating art; in this case, a little bit of both. The film moves at a pace which allows the viewer to remain fixed on how Claude's vampiric home invasion develops, not worrying about which parts are embellished and which are actually happening. If something starts to feel too phony, something else happens to support it - we see the scenario played multiple ways so that we know these events have been more Claude's imagination. Or Germain steps in to interact, a great device for how his position as a superior 'educator' is interfering with the fate of this family's life and Claude's. 

Ozon exposes the uncanny sticking out in a world of normality. The school building is austere, boxy and caged like a New York City public school. The film opens on the principle announcing a return to school uniforms. Ozon does a unique montage, showing a diverse range of students consolidated by uniform. This perfectly expresses how Germain feels about his environment. He is a rebel inside these walls, a writer at heart longing for great work. He finds it with Claude. Germain’s wife, Jeanne (Kristin Scott Thomas), is suffering from another kind of suppression at home: the effect of Germain living vicariously through Claude, which starts to occupy more of his interest than her. She is the owner of an avant garde art gallery that many in the community regard as a porn shop. They should be a team of outcasts, but he does not heed her warnings. In a world of imposing traditionalism, unity is the key for the uncanny surviving, but Claude seems to be targeting their weakness with his most unconventional experiment.

In Jeanne’s art gallery, we see overtly sexualized sculptures of famous DICKtators: Mao, Stalin, and Hitler – the message being just how much sexuality DICKtates. As the story progresses, Claude’s interest shifts focus strictly on the mother, Esther (Emmanuelle Seigner). Through projecting himself onto her, he begins to identify with her in ways that may not be so accurate. But it’s enough to excuse him coming onto her sexually. Having no maternal presence in his life, he seeks both a mother and a lover. Claude has his own struggles with conventionalism; the Artole’s are depicted as a French Americana, post-nuclear, suburban middle class family, eating pizza and watching basketball. Claude comes from the welfare state, with a single handicap father who he’s left to care for. As far as Claude is concerned, both he and Esther are suffering, and they can be happy if they run away together. If he doesn’t have this wish, he will become vindictive to his suppressors and his enablers.

There is one final shot in the film that has the impact of Sydney Lumet’s newsroom monitors in Network. The shot looks into the windows of various homes in an apartment complex, reminiscent of Hitchcock's Rear Window. It’s colorful, bold, full of diverse staging, and the mark of a great director stamping his piece. We see a slice of the world at large and all it's happenings. Philip French of The Guardian writes: “The director and the audience are drawn together as voyeurs imposing our narratives on what we see on the screen as we do when organizing the world around us.” Germain realizes, “there’s a way into every house.”

From Mandarin Cinema. Written and Directed by Francois Ozon. Based on the play by Juan Mayorga. Produced by Eric & Nicholas Altmayer, Claudie Ossard. Photographed by Jerome Almeras. Edited by Laure Gardette. Music by Phillippe Rombi. Starring Fabrice Luchini, Ernst Umhauer, Kristin Scott Thomas, Denis Menochet, and Emmanuelle Seigner. French language.  Rated R.

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