Director Francois Ozon’s IN THE HOUSE is a fine and thoughtful film about relationships, the love of literature, and gentle and persuasive manipulation. As in his earlier film THE SWIMMING POOL, he has used the structure of the writing process to raise ideas and create wonderful dramatic tension.

Germain (Fabrice Luchini) has been teaching literature at a French high school for more years than he is comfortable with and is driven to despair by falling standards of literacy, sterile imaginations and the miserable engagement with life of his pathetic students. One student, Claude (Ernst Umhauer), shows talent and skill as a writer and is encouraged by Germain.

Claude ingratiates himself into the house and family of his dull but friendly classmate, Rapha (Bastien Ughetto). Claude is attracted to this three person family as the parents happily collect Rapha from school and Rapha appears glad to see them. This middle class happiness is something that Claude is not familiar with. He writes about the intrigues of this family and his feelings towards the mother, father and Rapha. Claude is infatuated with Rapha’s mother, Esther, (Emmanuelle Seigner), whose character is flat and detached to the extent one wonders why Claude is attracted to her.

Germain shares these stories with his wife, Jeanne, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, and Germain and Jeanne are hooked on the story, and cannot wait for each addition that Claude gives to Germain as the teacher helps the student with his writing.

There is complexity to this story that this introduction does not convey. To add to the film’s charm there are surreal appearances of characters in scenes who comment on the scene we are watching and on Claude’s writing. Germain also comments on how the great writers would tackle each chapter.

This is richly engaging cinema that discusses the process of writing and different styles of literature. Jeanne runs an art gallery which further adds to the discussion of artistic processes.

The heart of the story is Claude’s manipulation of all the main characters and the affect this has on the various relationships. There are intriguing twists and developments which are skilfully woven into Francois Ozon’s screenplay.

Francois Ozon has directed beautiful and precise performances from the cast. The unbelievably assured performance from young Ernst Umhauer is a pleasure to watch. I recommend IN THE HOUSE, currently showing on limited release.