Sitcom (film)

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Sitcom
Directed by	François Ozon
Written by	François Ozon
IMDb profile

Sitcom is a 1998 satirical movie directed by François Ozon that shows the unlikely coming apart of a bourgeois family that is morally bankrupted when their father introduces a new pet, a white rat. The title is a reference to American sitcoms, which are often marked by outrageous plots and an offbeat sense of humor.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

One day, the family father returns home with a cute white rat, which is supposed to be the new family pet. Everyone who touches the rat loses his/her sexual inhibitions, and soon the family members and friends of the family begin to act out their most hidden desires — the son announces he is gay and begins throwing sex parties, the daughter attempts suicide and plays sadomasochistic games with her boyfriend (Stéphane Rideau), and the mother seduces her son in an attempt to "cure him" of his homosexuality.

Eventually the father commits suicide, unable to bear his family any longer — but life for the rest of the family goes on as if nothing has happened.

A possible inspiration for this movie may have been the famous diner scene from John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy that features a mother, her son, and a rubber mouse. In that scene, deep-seated sexual emotions are also laid bare by a seemingly innocent animal.

Another possible inspiration could have been Pier Paolo Pasolini's film and book "Teorema", in which the arrival of an unnamed stranger (played in the film by Terence Stamp) in the house of an upperclass Italian family causes a similar sexual explosion, as the stranger will engage in sexual activities with all the members of the family: the pious maid, the mother (who will become nynphomanic), the son (who will discover to be gay and become an artist), the daughter (who will become catatonic after he leaves) and the father.