&#8217;In the House&#8217; is a story about the power of
narrative -- in the film, Ernst Umhauer, left, writes about a
family. 'In the House' is a story about the power of narrative
-- in the film, Ernst Umhauer, left, writes about a family.
(Cohen Media Group)  "In the House" starts, innocently enough,
with a homework assignment. French high-school teacher Germain
(Fabrice Luchini) is grading a stack of essays on the subject of
"How I spent my weekend," when he is floored to discover — amid
the despair-producing monotony of what amount to literary shrugs
— something that feels a little like art. Or, if not that, at
least the flicker of an active imagination.  The author is a shy
16-year-old named Claude (Ernst Umhauer), who always sits in the
back row, and who has submitted a slightly snarky but closely
observed description of the family and middle-class home of a
classmate, Rapha (Bastien Ughetto). On the pretext of helping
Rapha with his math, Claude has recently insinuated himself into
his friend's house,