L'Inconnu dans la maison
1992 Crime / Drama
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Credits
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Summary
After his wife committed suicide, an eminent lawyer, Loursat, became a recluse, taking
solace in solitude and vintage wine. Ten years on, he is barely on speaking terms
with his daughter and housekeeper, his only companions in his large house. One evening,
Loursat hears a gunshot and finds the dead body of a young man in one of his rooms.
Anxious that his daughter may be implicated in the murder, he decides to take charge of
the criminal investigation...
Review
Georges Lautner was the third film director to adapt Georges Simenon’s novel Les
Inconnus dans la maison. After Henri Decoin’s masterful 1942
version (which starred the acting legend Raimu
) came Pierre Rouve’s lacklustre Stranger
in the House, released in 1967 and starring James Mason. In updating the
original novel to a contemporary setting, Lautner manages to lose much of the atmosphere
and psychological depth of Simenon’s work, so whilst the film is competently made, it
is essentially little more than a conventional court room drama. Far from being
the action hero of previous decades, the ever charismatic Jean-Paul Belmondo still dominates
the film and gives what is most probably one of his better film performances. The
actor’s real life sister, Muriel Belmondo, appears in the film, playing his cousin.
© James Travers 2005 Write a review for this film... |
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