Stranger by the Lake
| Stranger by the Lake | |
|---|---|
Film poster
|
|
| Directed by | Alain Guiraudie |
| Produced by | Sylvie Pialat |
| Written by | Alain Guiraudie |
| Starring |
Pierre Deladonchamps Christophe Paou Patrick d'Assumçao |
| Cinematography | Claire Mathon |
| Edited by | Jean-Christophe Hym |
| Distributed by | Les films du losange |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
100 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Budget | $1.3 million |
| Box office | $1.6 million |
Stranger by the Lake (French: L'Inconnu du lac) is a 2013 French drama-thriller film written and directed by Alain Guiraudie. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where Guiraudie won the award for Best Director. The film also won the Queer Palm award.
During the summer, on the edge of a lake surrounded by hills and forests and far from any houses, several male bathers, mostly naturists and gay, come to sunbathe. The woods behind the beach are a place where fleeting sexual encounters take place in a promiscuous atmosphere. Each day, Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps) lays his towel on the white stony beach where he gets to know Henri (Patrick d'Assumçao)--whose girlfriend has just left him--and also Michel (Christophe Paou), a good-looking man to whom he is instantly attracted. But Michel is a murderer as Franck soon finds out when one evening, from the woods which overlook the lake, he spots him drowning Pascal, his current partner. Upset and afraid but also completely under the spell of the murderer, Franck keeps what he has seen a secret, becoming an accomplice to the man he desires. He soon gives in to his advances and falls passionately in love with him, yet all the while hiding his fear in case his lover should realise that he knows exactly what he did.
Two days later, the body of the drowned man is discovered and identified. His death is considered suspicious bringing a police inspector to the scene who interrogates Franck and Michel shortly after. Franck continues to protect Michel by stating that he didn't see anything unusual on the evening the man drowned. As the inspector continues his investigation, Franck and Michel's relationship progresses, even though Franck becomes increasingly frustrated by Michel's refusal to meet him anywhere other than at the beach.
Henri, with whom Franck has built up a platonic relationship (Henri told him he assumes that Franck is not physically attracted to him, and Franck confirmed this), has an intuitive understanding of what has happened over the past few days, and warns Franck about Michel: "In your shoes, I would be very scared!" Franck is afraid of course, but when his psychopathic lover arrives during the discussion, he leaves Henri for Michel and sits down next to him further along the beach.
...
Wikipedia