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Stranger in the House

Stranger in the House (L'inconnu dans la maison)

Movie · 1992 · 15 people

Georges Lautner directed Jean-Paul Belmondo in Stranger in the House (French title L'Inconnu dans la maison), a French crime drama and courtroom film from 1992. Its source, loosely adapted, is Georges Simenon's 1940 novel Les Inconnus dans la maison, which Henri Decoin had already brought to the screen in 1942. Running about 97 minutes, it was shown in Germany as Das unheimliche Haus.

With this film Belmondo returned to the cinema after four years devoted solely to the stage. It was the fifth and last collaboration between Lautner and Belmondo, after Flic ou Voyou (1979), Le Guignolo (1980), Le Professionnel (1981) and Joyeuses Pâques (1984). Besides Belmondo, the cast includes Robert Hossein, Geneviève Page, Renée Faure, Cristiana Reali, Georges Géret, Guy Tréjan, Hubert Deschamps, Jean-Louis Richard, François Perrot, Mario David and Pierre Vernier.

On release the film was a heavy commercial disappointment, drawing only 413,794 admissions in France. It brings the judicial atmosphere of Simenon's novel to the screen.

DirectorGeorges Lautner

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Cast

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Jean-Paul Belmondo Jean-Paul Belmondo Film actor · died at 88 Sandrine Kiberlain Sandrine Kiberlain Film actor · 58 years old Renée Faure Cristiana Reali François Perrot Geneviève Page Georges Géret Guy Tréjan Hubert Deschamps Jean-Louis Richard Marcel Portier Mario David Odette Laure Olivier Proust Pierre Vernier

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Through different eyes

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Bringing Simenon's novel to the screen a second time means inevitably inviting comparison with Decoin's 1942 adaptation; Lautner's choice of a free adaptation can be read as an attempt to escape that shadow. The film tries to build the novel's judicial atmosphere through courtroom scenes and sets Belmondo in a courtroom, far from his familiar energetic image. That is an interesting risk. Yet the pace and wit seen in the pair's earlier collaborations give way here to a cautious style of storytelling, and the film's commercial disappointment can partly be read from that uncertainty of tone. As the end of the Lautner and Belmondo partnership it is intriguing, but it is not its peak.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

Anyone who sees the names Belmondo and Lautner and expects something in the vein of Le Professionnel is in for a surprise. This is a courtroom and crime drama; the tension comes not from chases but from questions in the courtroom. For fans of the genre it works in places, but overall the pace is heavy and the dialogue long. It is not for those looking for Belmondo the action star, but for those curious about a different side of the actor.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

Courtroom films are one of the most direct ways of staging how a society views crime and justice. Adapting a novel published in 1940 to the France of 1992 raises an interesting question in that light: over half a century, how much did the sense of justice, of responsibility and the outside view of what happens inside a household change? The film does not ask that question directly; it is mostly content to preserve the novel's judicial atmosphere. As a result it says little about its own time, but it opens a rewarding field of comparison for anyone who wants to watch the two adaptations side by side.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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