L'inconnu du lac

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.