18 | 1h 40min | Drama, Romance, Thriller | France
Director: Alain Guiraudie
Writer: Alain Guiraudie
Stars: Pierre Deladonchamps, Christophe Paou, Patrick d'Assumçao
Summertime. A cruising spot for men, tucked away on the shores of a lake. Franck falls in love with Michel, an attractive, potent and lethally dangerous man. Franck knows this but wants to live out his passion anyway.
The film premiered in the Un
Certain Regard section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where Guiraudie
won the award for Best Director.
Atmospheric.
Plot
Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps) is a regular visitor to a nude
beach and the woods surrounding it, both of which are a popular cruising
destination for gay men. He befriends Henri (Patrick d'Assumçao), an older man
who seeks solitude at the beach after breaking up with his girlfriend, and
Michel (Christophe Paou), a handsome man to whom Franck is instantly attracted.
One evening, Franck observes Michel drowning another man in
the lake. Though terrified by what he has seen, Franck is unable to resist his
attraction to Michel, and continues to pursue him. When the body of the drowned
man is discovered and identified, a police investigator begins to question the
men at the beach; Franck tells the investigator that he did not see anything
unusual on the evening the man drowned. Franck and Michel's relationship
progresses, though Franck becomes increasingly frustrated by Michel's refusal
to meet him anywhere other than at the beach.
Henri, who has correctly intuited the events that have
occurred over the past several days, warns Franck about Michel. When Franck
goes swimming, Henri confronts Michel, and tells him that he knows he is the
murderer. Henri leaves to take a walk in the woods, casting a glance back at
Michel as he departs. When Franck returns, he discovers that the beach is
suddenly deserted. He enters the woods, where he sees Michel walking away from
a patch of tall grass. Upon entering the grass, he finds Henri, whose throat
has been slit. Henri tells him that he got what he wanted. Franck, now being
pursued by Michel, runs into the woods to hide. He sees Michel run into the
inspector, whom he hits violently and stabs in the stomach with a knife.
Night falls, and Franck remains in hiding. Michel calls out
to Franck, saying that he needs his love and wants to spend the night with him.
Franck does not respond, and Michel walks away to search for him deeper in the
woods. After a time, Franck stands up from his hiding place, and calls out
Michel's name repeatedly.
Release
The film was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema
section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.
Reception
Stranger by the Lake received widespread critical acclaim.
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 94% rating,
based on reviews from 93 critics, with an average score of 7.75/10. The
website's critical consensus reads: "Sexy, smart, and darkly humorous,
Stranger by the Lake offers rewarding viewing for adult filmgoers in search of
thought-provoking drama." Metacritic gives a score of 82 based on 26
critics, indicating "universal acclaim."
Reviewing on Roger Ebert's website, Michał Oleszczyk awards
the film four out of four stars, praising Guiraudie's directing and the acting
of the cast. He writes: "Stranger by the Lake is the sexiest and most
elegant thriller in years..."
Village Voice film critic Melissa Anderson calls the film
"Guiraudie's most sexually explicit and narratively taut work,"
adding that "the writer-director's attention to the anarchic pull of lust,
simultaneously celebrated and reproved here, is sharper than ever."
In January 2014, the film was nominated for eight César
Awards at the 39th César Awards, with Pierre Deladonchamps winning the
award for Most Promising Actor.
The film was chosen as the best film of 2013 by French
film magazine Cahiers du cinéma. It also appeared on several
American film critics' 2014 top ten lists.
What the critics said:
Philadelphia Inquirer
Seattle Times
Washington Post
Boston Globe
Trivia
Ö There’s no music in the film at all
Ö There were no hair-dressers or make-up artists on the film's crew and none were employed for the film.
Ö There is not a single interior shot in the entire film.
Ö For the hard-core material, Alain Guiraudie wanted to film penetration shots too, but the body doubles employed wouldn't film them without condoms and in the film, Frank and Michel penetrate each other without condoms, so Alain Guiraudie dropped those shots.
Ö Cahiers Du Cinema ranked the film as the No. 1 film of 2013.
Ö Alain Guiraudie cast Christophe Paou in the role of Michel because he thought Christophe Paou looked like Tom Selleck.
Ö The casting call very clearly stated that the lead characters would be completely nude for almost the entire film.
Ö Right before the movie was released in French theatres in June 2013, its posters were censored and removed by the conservative mayors of the two cities of Saint-Cloud and Versailles.
Ö The film is set in the Landes region of France but was actually filmed near Marseille.
