Stranger by the Lake (2013) User Reviews

Michel! Michel!

[Laakbaar · 8/10 · 9 February 2014]

In this movie we enter the world of an isolated gay beach and cruising spot in southern France (filmed at Lac de Ste-Croix). Like many of these places in Europe, in the summer the men often bathe in the nude and frolic openly together in the wooded area behind the beach. It is a lakeside sylvan idyll, complete with sunshine, lush undergrowth and wind rustling through the trees. The inviting water is warm, clean and clear.

A small group of men - often the same ones returning every day – enjoy the natural beauty of this spot and engage in their cruising and sexual activity. Guiraudie presents this hidden world sympathetically, in a few deft strokes painting the complex social interactions that take place between these men. This is a specific time and place, but their interactions are universal and familiar. A fact of life, sometimes painful, sometimes humorous.

The film shows us not just the nature and geography, but also the ritual. The parking, the path, the anticipation, the greetings, the undressing, the talking, the sunbathing, the swim, the gaze, the dance, the rejection, the acceptance, the embrace, the release, the farewell, the path, the car. Day in, day out.

Franck loves it. You might say he's addicted to it. Guiraudie pornographically shows every aspect to movie goers, so there is no doubt what is actually going on. Seeing this is essential to properly understanding this erotically charged world.

We also see how brutal and shallow this beautiful world can be. Human relations here are based on appearance and sex, and little else. Franck seems to be a nice chap, but sex is the thing, perhaps the only thing, that really matters to him. Only the hot guys get to do it with someone like Franck; the others barely exist. Franck lusts after studly Michel, but as far as Henri is concerned, Franck enjoys his company and nothing more. At one point, Franck complains to Henri that all the good ones are taken – yet available Henri is sitting right there, listening to these hurtful words. Down-to-earth Henri doesn't seem to be hurt though. He even tells Franck he's not interested. He's not into cruising. Why would he be, the way he looks?

Some reviewers don't see much of a story in this film; however, the story is about Franck learning (or experiencing at least) that certain natural laws cannot be ignored.

* If something is too good to be true, it probably isn't.

* Beauty and goodness are not linked at all. Nor are sex and love.

* The people you find at the lake are there for a reason.

* Of course, people get hurt by all this. (It turns out that Henri was very hurt after all.)

* And, if you become too much part of this world, you'll eventually end up doing it even with poor Eric.

Our hero Franck is confronted with the ultimate dilemma: would he do it with a hot guy he knows is a murderer? Answer: Of course he would. The story is about Franck trying to maintain his balance on a slippery moral slope. Franck has no one to blame for his predicament except himself, although his incomprehension or heartbreak (I'm not sure which) is apparent when he calls out to Michel at the end.

Another moral (one that all gay men should pay heed to) is that problems often arise when two men start off their relationship with hot sex, before getting to know each other at all. Gay relationships are hard, and this is one reason why. The relationship between Franck and Michel illustrates this dilemma beautifully.

Despite its message, this world is shown in too much detail for the film to be an indictment of gay cruising or gay public sex. This is an honest gay film with profound truths about gay life and the human heart – for those willing to watch.

Bleak thriller puts the cock back in Hitchcock

[barkingechoacrosswaves · 8/10 · 31 January 2014]

I enjoyed "Stranger by the Lake" very much on several different levels. It features a compelling story line with plenty of suspense heightened by excellent acting and lovely, sensitive cinematography. However, this picture isn't for the faint of heart, so homophobes and prudes will want to give it a wide berth.

The plot revolves around a series of inexplicable decisions made by Franck, a handsome, 30ish vegetable seller who regularly visits a gay beach and cruising ground. The beach is inhabited by a largely unvarying selection of men who are completely indifferent to their "neighbors" except for one highly specific service that they can, and often do, render one another in the nearby woods. The men exploit and are exploited with a ruthlessness that I found stunning, familiar and sad.

This is a ground-breaking film in at least two ways. First, it is the most explicitly and unapologetically erotic art-house movie since Oshima's "In the Realm of the Senses," except that in this case all of the on-screen sex is gay. Second, it is really not a "gay film" in the sense that it is actually a story about human callousness and depravity. In other words, the gay characters and gay sex are almost incidental to the true message being conveyed in this movie: that human beings can be truly, and quite casually, inhuman toward each other. This is in contrast to many other "gay themed" titles where the "gayness" of the story line is the most important element in the film's identity. One could easily make a straight version of "Stranger by the Lake" and it would work equally well. Nonetheless, there is most definitely a certain "je ne sais quoi" in "Stranger by the Lake" that a heterosexual picture would be quite unequipped to deliver upon.

If you like your movies strong, suspenseful, lyrical and sleazy you will want to make a point of seeing "Stranger by the Lake."

Men Behaving Badly

[evanston_dad · 8/10 · 16 June 2014]

What drives people to engage in self-destructive behavior? Why do people seek out things (people, actions) that are bad for them? These seem to be the questions at the center of "Stranger by the Lake," a quiet film that casts an unsettling spell.

Franck is a young gay man who makes daily visits to an idyllic lakefront beach that serves as a popular gay cruising spot. Men scope each other out and then with a nod of the head or wink of the eye agree to wander off into the bushes to engage in all sorts of sexual activities, safe or otherwise. Franck crushes on Michel, a studly guy who proudly struts around naked, and finally succeeds in securing a tryst with him. But then one night he witnesses Michel casually drown another man. In one of the film's most effective twists, the knowledge of Michel's murderous tendencies draws Franck closer to him, and we watch him fall more and more for this guy who we know he should be turning in.

The film is one sustained note of creeping dread. From the start we just feel like things are headed to a bad place, and we stare with morbid fascination to see just what that bad place will be. All sorts of unpleasant spectres flirt at the margins of these men's lives. There's something predatory about the act of cruising in the first place, and the loneliness of Franck's life -- never explicitly shown but always implied -- makes him that much easier a victim. And then there are the unspoken phantoms of disease and addiction that color the men's behavior. For Franck, sexually transmitted diseases are a risk worth taking for the thrill of the hookup, just as an addict sets the consideration of consequences aside until after the high has worn off. Franck is compulsively drawn to the lake again and again long past the point where better sense, not to mention an instinct for self preservation, should prevail, and he willingly puts himself in greater danger as the film progresses. It's tempting to read the Michel character as a sort of personification of the allure of self abuse -- the excitement of self-imposed danger turned into an enticing and literal bogeyman.

The ending to the film is ambiguous and supremely creepy. It's a movie that's hard to get out of your head after you've seen it.

Grade: A

An admirable thriller - but extremely explicit

[urbanlegend23 · 8/10 · 4 August 2013]

A very explicit French gay-themed film. Sometimes it felt a bit overly so - including graphic unsimulated scenes of oral sex and even a shot of a man, erm, climaxing. But I kind of admire the movie at the same time for not shying away from showing anything. The characters are intriguing and the film is beautifully photographed in long, uninterrupted takes and panning shots of the lake setting. The setting itself is one of the best things about the movie. Everything takes place either on the lake or shore surrounding it, in the forest behind the lake, or a car park. You become so accustomed to these settings that everything else outside them seems meaningless - for instance we never see what the main character does for a living, or the supposed 'happy hour' drinks many of the cruising characters in this film attend after a day on the lake. None of that would've been necessary because the film is all about the character's interactions with one another on the beach, anything else would've felt out-of-place. It's a brilliant choice on the part of the director and has an interesting, hard-to-describe effect on the viewer. The film also has a healthy dose of humor (the police inspector is hilarious) and several very intense scenes, especially towards the ending. Recommended, but not for the squeamish or conservative!

An thrilling eye opener

[Gordon-11 · 5 October 2013]

This film tells what goes on among the men cruising by a beautiful lake in the summer, somewhere in France.

"Stranger by the Lake" is a single location film, with all scenes happening in or by the lake. The story focuses on a handsome young man who gets attracted to a dangerous man, putting his life at risk. Then, relationships between them, and a solitary man who sits by the lake gets complicated. Though the pacing is pretty slow in the beginning, the paces accelerates at lightning speed towards the end, delivering much thrills that makes people hold their breath. The ending is left open, but scenes just before the film ends are shocking and almost aggravating, evoking much gasps of horror and shouts of exasperation in the cinema.

Together with the highly explicit scenes, "Stranger by the Lake" is quite an thrilling eye opener that tells the truth in a cruising ground, and how love is completely blind.

Sex & Death in a beautiful setting

[mackjay2 · 7/10 · 2 December 2013]

"L'Inconnu du Lac" is a beautifully shot film. That's part of the seductive nature of the experience for the characters and for the viewer. We don't see a lot of gay-themed films like this, minus most of the stereotypes, in a minimalist setting, with threadbare narrative. The protagonist, Franck, is a cute, 20-30-something guy who swims at a lake frequented by other gay men in search of sun and sex. Franck has no trouble attracting attention, with and without his swimsuit on. He quickly befriends an older, unattractive man who always sits alone and seems aloof. Franck's need for connection to others is emphasized by this friendship. When Michel, a handsome, mustachioed hunk, is spotted, Franck goes into hot pursuit mode. The two connect after a while, in one of several graphic sexual encounters, and, much too soon, Franck thinks he's in love. The film takes a sinister turn when Franck witnesses Michel drown a previous companion in the lake. Consumed by desire for Michel, he tells no one about this and, though he admits to a detective that he was there on the evening of the murder, denies he saw anything. Why? Franck is so sexually addicted to Michel that he cannot bear to let him go by exposing him. The relationship between the two men continues, without real development, since Michel will have none of Franck's insistence on anything more than sex. In the end, Franck is consumed, literally by desire: the "petite mort" of sexual pleasure becomes the annihilation of the self. The film's beautiful setting plays against the disturbing narrative, making it a unique, provocative, and often erotic experience.

Amazing piece of filmmaking!

[landry22 · 9/10 · 25 October 2013]

Not much to add to the other comments made here, but I'll say that this film was pretty fantastic! It offers a keen inside view of the gay community living and cruising around the lake of the title. All the characters are dead on: the cute guy, the old queens, the pervert etc. with no judgment whatsoever. The pacing can seem long to some, but I quite enjoyed the repetitive installation shots. It mirrored the compulsive visits to the lake the hero makes, in hopes of finding love, even if he himself knows it's a futile quest.

"L'inconnu du lac" screened at the FNC (Festival du Nouveau Cinema) a few weeks ago, where I saw "Interior. Leather Bar." (the James Franco and Travis Mathews doc). I couldn't help but see a connection with some of the stuff Franco discussed. Our objections to porn and graphic sex are mostly constructed by society rather than rooted in any inherently moral reasons. The sex scenes in "L'inconnu du lac" are very graphic but never gratuitous. They expose the mal de vivre of the gay men who visit this beautiful lake better than words could.

The setting makes the movie

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 29 September 2013]

"L'inconnu du lac" or "Stranger by the Lake" has made quite a few waves in Cannes this year, including a Director win in the certain regard category for Alain Guiraudie. When I watched the film earlier today, I wasn't really sure what to expect at all. I did see the trailer earlier, but judging from that it could have developed into all kinds of directions. What it did turn out to be in the end was a pretty good crime thriller and I really liked a lot that we only see everything that happens at the lake. There's character development beyond that, for example Franck and Henri meeting for dinner, but the fact that our knowledge of the situations and characters is restricted exclusively to everything that happens at the beach lends this 100-minute movie a very special and extremely tense atmosphere from the moment the crime factor comes into play.

The film's central character is portrayed by Pierre Deladonchamps as an openly homosexual male who regularly visits a beach frequented mostly by gay men looking for adventures and, one day, he sees another big strong man, who reminded me of the young Tom Selleck in Magnum, and who he is immediately attracted to. When the two get closer, dark shadows get in the way of their togetherness. While the tension rises as the film moves on, it's sexually explicit from the very beginning. There's naked men from start to finish, frequently having sex and on one or two occasions we even see close-up shots of erect penises and ejaculation. If this does not bother you, it's a movie very much worth watching, especially for Patrick d'Assumçao's excellent supporting performance as a previously-married man who recently found his true sexuality. The vulnerability he displayed in his scenes had my eyes glued to the screen. You have to dig really deep to find flaws with it and while the ending may not be for everybody, I liked it as well. On a side note, you don't find too many very famous films that feature an exclusively male cast, but this one here could fit the category when it makes its way around theaters and living rooms all across the world and rises in popularity in the next couple years.

There's a whole lot of gay-movies (although I don't really like that term, as this is certainly one for straight audiences as well) coming out every year, but most of these fall in the short film category, which is a very popular genre for films centering on homosexuality, coming-outs etc. Here is finally a full feature on the issue and even better it's one that is very much worth watching.

Metaphor on risk-taking

[jimflemingnsw · 8/10 · 19 October 2013]

The film has a rigid repetitive structure: arrival at the beach; the walk through a sylvan landscape; arrival at an idyllic place where all the senses are salved by the beauty of the beach, the sensuous sounds of the water, the soughing of the breeze in the trees; the quiet return at day's end. And then the same structure to the next day, and the one after that, and so on. It is a metaphor both for the sexual act itself and for the inevitable progress from action to outcome.

Franck's cruising is initially frustrated. He fails to hook up and then, when he does, his release is frustrated by his partner's insistence on safe sex. Soon, though, his orgasm is explicitly portrayed: le petit- mort.

Franck subsequently watches the object of his desire, Michel, participate in playful swimming and ducking with Pascal. The play becomes rougher and rougher until reaching a devastating climax: le grande mort.

Despite repeated exposure to evidence of Michel's crime (the abandoned towel and shoes on the beach, the abandoned red car), Franck embarks on a relationship with Michel. He even risks swimming with him - and their relationship reaches a higher climax than before.

Franck is addicted to sex and has no regard at all for the risks. His fellow-naturists are addicted to sun-worship and have no regard for the risks to their skin. Henri is addicted to self-pity and has a barely- suppressed death-wish. The Inspector takes unwarranted risks in repeatedly interviewing a suspected murderer while alone and undefended at an isolated beach.

Ultimately, Franck succumbs completely to his addiction and risks everything despite the explicit evidence before him. Is the film-maker alluding to mankind's addiction to consumerism despite the known risks?

gay man seeks love with murderer

[maurice_yacowar · 7/10 · 14 February 2014]

We see the murder in Stranger by the Lake and we see Franck watch it. Instead of a whodunit, then, this film is a whydotheydoit?

The film never leaves the woodsy beach which the local gay men have made a cruising spot. Whatever lives the characters have elsewhere is irrelevant. All that counts is what happens here. Indeed the gay lovers make a point of not taking their relationships from here into the outside world. So why do all the men come here?

As the straight logger Henri suggests, it's a place for loners of either persuasion to come, find a little small talk with accepting strangers and enjoy the water and the sun. The lake serves the lonely. For most of them sex is usually part of the equation, though Henri bristles at the expectation you need to have sex to enjoy the comfort of sleeping with someone. Franck and Henri try to meet outside, for drinks, a dinner, but don't make it. The anonymity allows escape from mundanity. Our dashing Franck sells vegetables in the market. Here he's prime meat.

Then, too, who is the stranger in the title? As the only straight habitué Henri has some call on that ID. So does the dogged police inspector whose sniffing round the murder scene takes him there long after hours. And who is stranger than the polite voyeur? Or the pudgy chappie who shakes hands after work? Clearly the title points to the whole cast of strangers, isolates and the marginalized, who come together in the relative safety of this wilderness, who find comfort on the stony beach, intimacy in the woods and perhaps even harmony in the whistling trees. There is no music here, but the waves and the leaves perform a symphony of danger in the nature of things, even over the end credits. That harmony is violated only by Franck's old rattling Renault.

Finally, who is the stranger of the central couple? The moustachioed Michel is dashing and sinister, especially after we see him snuff his first lover. But despite that knowledge Franck seeks him out to fall in love with. With eyes wide open he enters into a possibly fatal affair. Even at the end, having seen Michel murder Henri and the inspector, Franck stops hiding from Michel and instead calls to him. As the despairing solitary Henri sought death at Michel's hand, the helpless Michel calls out to his murderous lover. Without this refuge from the antipathetic world outside, death's sting is welcomed. Especially if it's veiled by the explosive ardour of these brief loves.

The paradox is that for all the casual full frontal nudity and the graphic sexual activity, the characters' impulses and emotions remain hidden. The real stranger here is the intimacy that does an end-run around sex.

If you think this is a good film...be prepared to be disappointed

[aretel · 2/10 · 3 June 2014]

I gave this film a two for the acting and the cinematography, which I thought were the only redeeming factors of this film.

The plot is ill conceived and goes against all logic. I can understand a person living on the edge of life,toying with the thrill of danger and going out into the "deep end" (no pun intended), but this film fails miserably in its execution of trying to make this film a thriller. This film was referred to as having all the elements of a great Hitchcock classic, which is purely misleading and an insult to the great director's ingenious work. In Hitchcock's films there was a plausible reason why his characters would put themselves in danger, a purpose that is grossly lacking in this film, contributing to film's weak and implausible plot.

Regarding "gay cruising culture", it seemed that the director is conveying that most people who venture into a gay cruising area are either shallow, or too apathetic to their surroundings to notice or care that something's definitely not right on the beach. The fact that a pair of shoes and towel sitting alone on the beach for days without an owner doesn't raise concerns by the beach goers is unbelievable an unrealistic. Surely, someone with a good conscience would have been curious enough in real life and reported this to the authorities. Again, this contributes to the film's poor execution of the film's plot.

Patrick d'Assumçao was convincing and effective in his portrayal of Henri, and he brought a depth to his character as the reclusive stranger on the beach which the other characters lacked. Franck was, frankly speaking, boring and self absorbed, and very one dimensional.

The cinematography was excellent, but there were too many scenes that were long and tedious with nothing happening. It exhausted me to look at the numerous parking lot scene with very little occurring except for Franck driving up and parking his car. By the second scene of the parking lot, it was very predictable as to who was coming up the road to park their car, so the long length of time between nothing happening in the parking lot and the time it took Franck to drive into the area, did nothing to enhance the mystery of the movie. It was just frustrating to watch.

I'm not sure what the writer was trying to convey; lust clouds all reasonable judgement and reaction to a witnessed murder? If so, then the main character Franck lacked intelligence, apathy and common sense to realize that what he was getting involved with was not only stupid but also dangerous.

Henri a formidable character, becomes the "sacrificial lamb" of the film, but his death does nothing to make his death meaningful, nor does his actions protect Franck from Michel, something we assumed Henri would have wanted to do. So why did the writers make him go into the lion's den willingly after he acknowledged to Michel that he knew he was the killer the police were looking for. This premise is just irrational and provided me with no incentive to continue watching the film.

Other than generating a discussion on the plausibility of this film and why it did not work, this film was a complete waste of time and I would caution others who may have chosen this film due to the positive reviews posted on IMDb(the reason why I decided to watch this film). The positive reviews on this film are about as disingenuous as this movie turned out to be.

Not for the faint of heart, but ultimately rewarding for demanding moviegoers

[doomgen_29 · 8/10 · 20 June 2013]

There are some thriller tropes here and there, a tiny bit of suspense, but at its core, it's mostly a chronicle, we follow, for a few day, a handful of men cruising by a lac. Some will be taken aback by the highly graphical nature of the movie, but I deeply believe that the point here isn't shock value, but simply the desire to shoot that peculiar microcosm completely untethered, and that, Giraudie (the writer- director) certainly does in spades! Idiots will talked about porn, but this clearly isn't masturbation material, it truly is masterful and heartfelt filmmaking, art in the true sense of the word, but with a lot of fellatio and hand jobs between men! It should speak to all of us, because at its core is the fear of absolute loneliness, even amongst one's kin, and the character of Henri in that respect is quite fascinating. Basically the man is a clam, his mind seems unfathomable, is he looking for a friend, is he looking for a lover? What does he truly want from the protagonist Franck? Who knows? So, to sum it up, don't take your parents to see this film, trust me, but go, you'll thank me later!

Suspenseful drama unfolds as a moral story about risk taking

[kurbane · 7/10 · 28 May 2014]

I finally saw 'Stranger by the Lake', streaming it on Netflix. The movie takes a detached look at a gay cruising area situated by an idyllic lake area in France. The film has plenty of nudity and graphic sex and some viewers denigrate the film as porn, I know porn and this is certainly not that. In fact, I found the direct and unapologetic look at the main character's desire and sexuality to be refreshing. I did have two problems with the film. First, the lack of suspense given the circumstances of the film. Second, the one dimensional characters; the hot stud who can't commit, the young twink that confuses sex and desire for love, and the older pathetic man. However, I enjoyed that the film on another level is about risk and inadvertently becomes a moral story showing the viewer that when you are unable to subsume your desire and do the right thing tragedy results.

Slow and self indulgent.

[pb104-1 · 2/10 · 3 February 2014]

It's a cruising beach for gays somewhere in France. Men arrive early and simply sit on a towel and wait for a suitable boy to have flash sex with. Otherwise, they just sit there. No music. Nothing to read. Desultory conversations. The most boring bunch of shallow losers you ever saw. The film itself has no music or other diversions. It all takes place on the same beach. The end titles go by in dead silence.

SPOILER ALERT!!! Franck, justly described as "stupid" by Michel, sees Michel drown his current lover in the lake and does nothing. No one does anything, in fact. The lover's towel sits on the beach for days, and no one seems to care. Franck takes Michel as a lover and covers for him when an investigator arrives. The ending is ambiguous and totally predictable.

Hard to tell if this is an indictment of gay culture, or a misguided slice of cruising life. All the men are depicted as having virtually nothing to say, and are as shallow as a teacup. Or, they are deeply self-destructive. Or homicidal. Can't imagine why this film is being championed by the gay community. The characters are portrayed in a very bad light.

Very well visualized developments around a dangerous relationship. Nice opportunity for us to have an inside view in a cruising place where gay people meet

[JvH48 · 8/10 · 16 October 2013]

I saw this film at the Ghent (Belgium) film festival 2013, where it was part of the official Competition. Young and middle aged men, slim and fat(ter) men, not all of them with obvious good looks, all around a lake in France that is well known as a gay cruising place. People come there to meet, at first on the beach watching and showing, often withdrawing later discretely in the bushes, either alone to cruise or in pairs to have various forms of sex. They only know each other by their first names, and have little intent to form a long lasting relationship. In other words, this is very-casual sex of the gay kind, a world we know not much about other than some fragmented descriptions. At least, I knew nothing about what this world looked like. This movie has me updated on my general knowledge, of course thereby safely assuming that what we saw reflects reality.

Despite all the above, when relationships get closer, chances that some form of jealousy creeps in are just as big as in hetero relations. Even speaking with others on the beach, however brief, is watched closely and interrupted when it takes too long. Maybe jealousy can be even worse here, but the story at hand may well be a-typical and possibly far from the norm.

A considerable part of the running time is devoted to showing us how this cruising world-in-a-world operates, while simultaneously zooming in on a time bomb that is growing before our eyes, only waiting to explode in everyone's face. The tension builds up evenly over time, even while knowing all along that no good can come out of this. The characters are introduced nicely, so we get some bit of an idea who they are and what their purpose is here in this particular part of France. The plot takes off with a murder in the beginning, leading to several murders in the end, and in between we see the fatal path paved step by step.

The film makers could not (probably wanted not) avoid including a certain amount of gay sex in various shapes and forms, given the circumstances. It is not shown to the extent that we can mark is as hard core porn, but some of the scenes are beyond soft, and little is left to our imagination. Those who are unable to bear gay sex scenes in full color, better not book tickets for this movie, since there are more than a few of these, plus several doses of full frontal nudity before and after the action. Maybe I did not pay enough attention, but I did not spot ANY woman in this film, so be prepared for a 100% male experience.

The finale is indeed exploding in our face, condensed in the last 5 to 10 minutes, and the consequences are very fatal for some of our semi-main characters, though the ending leaves open what happens with the real main characters Franck and Michel. But we can only assume that their fate is not much better.

All in all, though obviously not everyone's cup of tea, the inside view in a cruising place like this is worth while. And the story never gets really boring, due to the mix of characters involved, gay in majority, but not all of them. The film makers did a fine job.

special

[Vincentiu · 3 February 2014]

it could have different verdicts. it could impress for the obsessive image of parking space, for dialog, for light between branches, for sex scenes, for lake or dialogs. in essence, it is a movie about deep solitude. and the art of director,the great acting, the force of image are ingredients of a sort of masterpiece. sure, it can surprise or scandalize. but not this is the purpose. the heart represents the search of sense. the need of the other and the best illustration is the character of Henri. a film about escape from yourself. eroticism is only a tool. like the summer . but if you dig , you discovers the beauty of sad, cruel manifesto . a film who must see it. it is not an easy exercise but can useful. because it is a special film. in fact, a necessary analysis.

Beautifully different and intriguing

[grome · 7/10 · 12 August 2013]

I found 'Stranger by the Lake' an odd mix. On the one hand, I loved the stillness it captured. Yet another beautiful film in the NZ film festival, some of the shots of the idyllic beach setting were breathtaking. There were times when the camera lost our protagonist, and simply explored the setting. At times this meant capturing the voyeuristic nature of the cruising context, but other times it simply panned off to take in the beauty of he surroundings.

But on the other hand, it was the strange overlay of the thriller narrative with a investigator character who must have played some symbolic role. I couldn't understand how he worked in the world of the film. He roamed like someone who didn't belong in Guiraudie's realm and was more than just a stark contrast to the other characters, he was a sore thumb. The thriller element worked on the erotic level, but not on the police procedural.

It was the attraction and intrigue generated from the intense gazes across the beach that made the dynamic so fascinating. The layers of attraction were peeled away, and I found myself feeling sorry for Franck as he searched for a connection in such a wrong wrong place. The centrals couple's second swimming scene was a worthy centrepiece: the tension in preparing for death, attempting futilely to form a bond that is mistaken for love. A sad, and entrancing tale.

A remarkable allegory of modern alienation

[Buddy-51 · 9/10 · 26 May 2014]

Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps) spends the summer frequenting an all-male nude beach where men come to sunbathe and to engage in casual sex in the woods nearby. One quiet evening, he secretly witnesses a man, Michel (Christophe Paou), whom he briefly met earlier in the day, drown another young man, perhaps his lover, in the lake. Despite this knowledge, Franck finds himself so intensely and inexplicably drawn to the killer that he establishes a relationship and quickly begins falling in love with him.

Laced with highly-charged erotic undertones, "Stranger By the Lake" is a low-keyed, multi-leveled thriller whose dark and disturbing themes simmer beneath a deceptively simple surface. The sex is certainly graphic in its depiction - no simulation going on here, folks - but it is germane to the storytelling and integral to the theme.

Written and directed by Alain Guiraudie, this psycho-sexual chiller achieves an uber-creepy tone without resorting to a single cliché associated with the overworked genre. Heck, there isn't even any music to helpfully alert us to the story's moments of greatest intensity. The movie creates suspense through the observation of character rather than through overt action or violence, with the placidity of the setting placed in stark relief against the grimness of the crime.

Except for the fact that it's in color, "Stranger By the Lake" has much of the look and feel of an early Michelangelo Antonioni film, what with its languid pacing, the artful minimalism of its shots, and the obliqueness of its storytelling and characters. In fact, what's most disturbing about the characters is their seemingly utter detachment not only from the society around them but from their own emotions and any semblance of a moral code. They seem to float freely about in a world of their own making, one in which they live only for the absorption of the moment and in which they are cut off completely from any meaningful human connection. In a way, casual sex is merely an external manifestation of the much more serious underlying condition of angst and alienation (a favorite theme of Antonioni's work, in fact) that's come to define their mode of living and, by extension, much of modern society itself. But is it really possible for an individual to remain that detached from everyone and everything, or is that just a pose designed to keep us from having to actively engage in life with all its attended complications and messiness?

Guiraudie raises the question, then leaves it up to the audience to come up with its own answer. For that is the way with "Stranger By the Lake." It disturbs us in so many different ways, while at the same time refusing to spoon-feed us or to play to our expectations as so many movies routinely do. It assumes that we are mature enough to handle both its raw sexuality and its super-dark vision of the world. And, for that alone, any true movie-lover should be immensely grateful.

Highly Disturbing Representation of an Idealized World

[l_rawjalaurence · 7/10 · 20 August 2014]

Alain Guiraudie's film is highly disturbing, not so much for its frank portrayal of sexuality or in the violence of its ending, but rather in its representation of human imprisonment. The title is deliberately ambiguous: at the beginning of the film we think that straight man Henri (Patrick d'Assumçao) is the stranger by the lake, as he comes every to sit on his own, looking out across the lake without participating in any of the couplings that preoccupy all the other visitors. Although striking up a friendship with Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps), he always seems a lonely, alienated figure. As the action unfolds, however, we come to understand that every single man who comes to bathe by the lake is a stranger; their lives are strangely disconnected, dominated by cruising and casual affairs. Any attempt to develop a love-affair any further is rejected, especially by Franck's lover Michel (Christophe Paou). Structurally speaking, THE STRANGER ON THE LAKE comprises a series of repetitive shots of automobiles parked close to the lake, interspersed with shots of the lake itself and the bathers undertaking their daily rituals. The situation seems positively idyllic, but in this film it is represented as a form of imprisonment. No one, it seems, can give vent to their feelings; they can only participate in the accepted rituals. Hence Henri represents something of a subversive force - even though he doesn't actually do anything. Love in this film has been reduced to a series of casual affairs between strangers. The dialog is spare, almost inconsequential; the shooting-style slow, comprised of long takes; both of these cinematic strategies help to reinforce the confining nature of this world: no one says anything of any consequence (to do so would be dangerous), and no one ever does anything different. Repetition equals security; unexpected movement - as symbolized through fast cutting - is a threat to the order of this world. STRANGER BY THE LAKE is a powerful film, beautifully shot and performed.

A surprising move about human condition

[abisio · 10/10 · 28 May 2014]

First let me clarify. This movie has a lot of simulated homosexual sex but only a couple of brief scenes could be consider real and are not that strong.

I am male and not gay so for me was easier to see BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (L' Vie the Adele) than confronting with a movie about male cruising but after the unanimous word of mouth about this movie I took the risk and I am happy I did.

The movie is pretty simple. One big lake, a wood and a parking lot. The pace is deliberately slow but pretty involving. In certain moments the suspense reach Hitchcock levels.

The story is quite simple too. Just the necessary twists to create a particular situation.

In a "cruising environment" near a lake Franck see his object of desire possibly commit ting a crime and basically lies to the police in order to cover it.

What really matters are the very few characters in that environment and their interactions.

In the same way BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR was better told from a woman perspective; this tale is perfectly suited for men. Both are great movies; put aside prejudices and see both.

Risky behavior doesn't begin to describe it

[Red-125 · 6/10 · 12 November 2013]

The French film L'inconnu du lac was shown in the U.S. with the title Stranger by the Lake (2013). It was written and directed by Alain Guiraudie.

Pierre Deladonchamps plays Franck, a handsome young man cruising at a lakeside resort. He meets Michel, played by Christophe Paou, and the sexual chemistry is there.

No problem--this film is about cruising, and it depicts men having sex with men. The problem arises when Franck witnesses what is almost certainly a murder. He obviously should be extremely troubled by this, but he's not. At least, he's not troubled enough to change his behavior.

A police inspector, investigating the case, is as confused by this behavior as I was. He says something like, "You men were cruising, and yesterday there was a murder here, and today you're still cruising as if nothing had happened."

So . . . this is a puzzling film, but not a typical mystery. (We know who the murderer is because we see the murder when Franck sees it. The mystery is why Franck doesn't do anything about what he has seen.)

This strange film is somewhat disturbing. It's fine if you're OK with watching graphic sex and truly risky behavior. If either of these things bothers you, pass on this movie.

We saw the movie at the Little Theatre as part of Image Out--the Rochester LGBT Film Festival. It will work well on the small screen.

Dull, desperate, attention-seeking tactics, mostly one-dimensional characters and a failure to generate even a modicum of tension

[thomasshahbaz · 1/10 · 28 February 2014]

This was truly one of the most infuriating cinema experiences I've had in years. I don't know where to start.

This film was embarrassingly bad, not only due to the totally superfluous use of graphic sex, but mainly due to the writer/director's inability to create any sense of character depth (the closest it comes is in Henri, who I greatly sympathised with, but sadly the film eschews any sort of interesting development of his character in favour of the boring, bland, insipid and ridiculous Franck, who wades only in the shallowest of waters).

Just when you can't stand it any more and are waiting for the main character to die, the film ends. Now, this could be an attempt to create a Haneke/"Hidden" type effect, but it fails to do this, and seems more like the writer just couldn't be arsed to write an ending, which frankly I wouldn't be bothered to do myself, but this begs the question, why even bother to start? Not only does this film seek to isolate and alienate its audience (all but the seediest of gays will probably find the first twenty minutes uncomfortable, boring, vulgar and direction-less), but it does so, in my opinion, for absolutely no reason. There wasn't even any sense of the Von Trier mischief... it just literally has a couple of graphic shots spliced in meaninglessly, and I can only assume that this was done to draw in the salacious crowds, as the plot (or lack of) certainly wouldn't do that on its own.

I read somewhere (on the poster?) that it was reminiscent of Hitchcock... don't believe this. It is much more reminiscent of simply "cock", and can't even be bothered to "finish" itself "off" at the end.

Total rubbish.

Addendum: (credit where credit's due) beautiful photography of the water.

killing me softly with your knife!

[lasttimeisaw · 8/10 · 15 December 2013]

A much-hyped critics-darling since Cannes this year, a sudden bonanza for French director/writer Guiraudie, it ends up both in this year's Top 10 lists of SIGHT & SOUND and CAHIERS DU CINEMA (where it nabs the 10th slot and first place respectively). So indisputably it is a movie one shouldn't miss, also plugged by its explicit gay sex scenes, the stimuli are ample.

Scale-wise, it is an original uni-locale (a nudists beach where gay men cruise around in the nearby woods) theatrical experiment with limited roles conversing, swimming, peeping, rumination and sexing up, inclusively shot under natural lighting (the climax in the hours of darkness couldn't be more instantaneously spine-chilling and expectant) and devoid of music manipulation. The film initiates each day with the same frame angle aiming to the parking alley and we follow the ambivalent path of Franck (Deladonchamps)'s infatuation with the enigmatic Michel (Paou), who is deadly alluring but murderous, step by step, Franck is drawn into this excitement of uncertainty (and of course, the euphoric pleasure from the carnal knowledge), his desperate measure to move their relationship onto another level is at odd with Michel's no sleepover involvement, which reflects the quagmire of modern-day relationship syndrome, not exclusive in homosexual club.

Another sub-plot relates to the purely platonic friendship between Franck and a rotund carpenter Henri (d'Assumçao), the only non-nudist and a bystander on the beach, there is awkward silence in between tellingly suggests the league-boundary is more tensile than one thinks. DP Claire Mathon runs the gamut from the lingering long-distance shots to the more fluid subjective takes (the murder scene in the lake from the viewpoint of Franck combines both into the apotheosis), not to mention the hardcore material in its graphic presentation, I'm not an alarmist, so the bold bravura gains many points for the film per se.

Guiraudie never makes intelligible of the murder case and the turnaround to a modest slasher near the coda is a bit precipitous but the abrupt ending justifies this entrancing feature as the crème de la crème in the art house branch because it leaves the viewers in a state of transcending suspense and never quench it.

Deladonchamps excels in his guileless jock appearance with a more traditional value of romance; Paou submerges into a more opaque vision as a perfect lover full of temptation and threat, yet detrimentally irresistible. Truly, STRANGER BY THE LAKE is an emboldened genre-breaker, unlike the spearheading gay romance WEEKEND (2011, 8/10), it manifests a different facet of desire, stress and self-delusion among us.

If you go down to the woods tonight ...

[MOscarbradley · 6/10 · 18 February 2014]

"Stranger by the Lake" arrives already garlanded with the very highest praise possible including a four star review from my friend Michał Oleszczyk. Perhaps, then, my expectations were simply too high but this gay serial-killer thriller never quite took off for me. It started well. It's lakeside setting and the woods around it were beautifully captured in Claire Mathon's cinematography, those characters crucial to the action nicely established; the handsome hero, the over-weight straight guy he befriends, the tall, sexy swimmer he falls for and the swimmer's jealous boyfriend while the sex looks and feels, and is indeed, real. I liked that the film never leaves this setting and I liked the naturalistic use of sounds, the total absence of music and the way director Alain Guiraudie brilliantly establishes the passing of time by long shots of the car-park with the hero's car coming into sight to signal the beginning of a new day. I didn't even mind the first murder which added a frisson of danger to the act of cruising which can be dangerous in itself. But in the end I found it deeply conventional; the characters are never developed beyond the stereotypical and the downward spiral into gay slasher movie is very regrettable. I had hoped for a more subtle comment on this rarely touched on topic than the fairly obvious one we get here. I wanted to come away from this movie feeling something other than "if you go down to the woods tonight be afraid, be very afraid", and sadly I didn't.

Incredibly weak film.

[CallumRichards · 3/10 · 20 November 2013]

This film reminded me a lot of Paradise: Love (which I gave 1/10) both in terms of content and style and as a film that gets good reviews when I cannot fathom what is so impressive about the story, acting or any other aspect.

The film's crime story element was worthy of a soap opera, the acting wasn't to that standard and I can only assume that the director thought he was being artistic by fleshing out the 12 year old level writing by filling great sections of the film with graphic sex scenes.

I have concluded that those praising this film are doing so for two reasons. Fear of being called a homophobe, or Emperor's New Clothes, they want everyone to know they "get it" when there is nothing to get. It is just a really bad film.

The only positive things about this film are Franck's conversations with Henri at the side of the beach which made him likable and was going to get the film a 2/10 rather than a 1/10. The best part of the film far and away was the ending which was very tense and very well done, that got it bumped to a 3/10. The makers would probably have been better off making the end into a short film and discarding the rest.

As closing points. I don't know how this won the Queer Palm when the film that won the Palme D'or (Blue is the Warmest Colour) had an LGBT theme. Secondly, if you want a gay love story I recommend Weekend (2011), that is one of the best films ever made.