L'Inconnu dans la maison (1992)
Directed by Georges Lautner

Film 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.

Film Synopsis

Since his wife committed suicide ten years ago, Jacques Loursat, a once renowned lawyer, has lived the life of a recluse, dousing his sorrows in alcohol and self-pity.  He shares his large empty house with his teenage daughter Isabelle and a housekeeper, but he scarcely has a word to say to either of them.  On returning home one evening, Loursat hears a sudden gunshot and then catches a fleeting glimpse of someone running away.  To his surprise, he finds a young man he has never seen before lying dead in one of his rooms, apparently shot through the heart.

The criminal investigation soon gets underway and the dead man is identified as a drugs dealer, Joël Cloarec.  The most likely suspect is Isabelle's boyfriend, Antoine Manu, who had a clear motive for murdering Cloarec.  Loursat is the only person - other than his daughter - who is unconvinced of Manu's guilt.  Unable to sit by and see an innocent man convicted, he decides to come out of retirement to take charge of Manu's defence.  At first, from the testimony of the witnesses, the case against Manu appears pretty damning, but then, in the course of Loursat's meticulous investigation, another possible suspect emerges...