Rent Stranger by the Lake (2013)
3.4 of 5 from 158 ratings
1h 40min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Summer time. A cruising spot for gay men seeking nameless sexual encounters, is tucked away on the shores of a picturesque secluded lake in rural France. Franck is an attractive young male who falls in love with Michel, a striking, extremely potent but lethally dangerous man. Franck has witnessed this first hand, but his desire for Michel knows no bounds, this is a relationship he must have - at any cost.
- Actors:
- Pierre Deladonchamps, Christophe Paou, Patrick d'Assumçao, Jérôme Chappatte, Mathieu Vervisch, Gilbert Traina, Emmanuel Daumas, Sébastien Badachaoui, Gilles Guérin, François-Renaud Labarthe, Claude Bellelle, Slawomir Cieminski, Jean-Marie Crémier, Bernard Delavaux, Bernard German, Jean-Michel Giordano, Lucien Lerda, Patrick Marconi, Serge Morgadinho, Eric Piccolotto
- Directors:
- Alain Guiraudie
- Producers:
- Sylvie Pialat
- Writers:
- Alain Guiraudie
- Aka:
- L'inconnu du lac
- Studio:
- Peccadillo Pictures
- Genres:
- Lesbian & Gay, Thrillers
- Collections:
- Getting to Know: Tilda Swinton
- Countries:
- France
- Awards:
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 26/05/2014
- Run Time:
- 100 minutes
- Languages:
- French DTS 5.1
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.35:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
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Reviews (2) of Stranger by the Lake
Disturbing and thought provoking - Stranger by the Lake review by IM
The film seeks to explore the fact of gay anonymous cruising: loneliness and obsession, arousing hostility yet curiously matter-of-fact in its negotiations!
The dangers of this world are obvious when a murder is committed. Frank, our little hero actually witnesses this, yet he is in denial.
The cruising it seems must go on.
Here the film loses its way for me.
The police inspector who comes to investigate is as superficial as the other people in the plot. He seeks to solve the crime by cruising around the cruisers, alone and resorting to a strange sociological approach to detection!
After a kind of denouement the finale is bleaker than bleak. Was the murderer apprehended? Was Franks killed? Intiguing, maybe, but the ending seems very unsatisfying.
Perhaps it does say something about human relationships. The "fat ugly guy" is the true friend and Frank senses this. The sex bomb is evasive and manipulative.
He's the one not worth knowing. He's the one that destroys lives. Sure this contains sex and how men obtain it from each other in a quick fix. But, of course, the danger really comes when more is wanted, when people need to feel love and the all the joys it brings...
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Don’t Look Now - Stranger by the Lake review by CH
Much to admire in this claustrophobic film……not least the importance of a solitary and clothed philosopher on the beach, (a Gerard Depardieu lookalike…)(presumably he wasn’t available). The calm idyllic waters of the lake are disturbed by what looks like the rough play of boys but turns sinister…..an unspeakable act. A classy French film that might have wider appeal were it not for the 18 certificate for the overtly homoerotic scenes.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.
Critic review
Stranger by the Lake (aka L'inconnu du lac) review by George Hooper - Cinema Paradiso
When I saw the trailer for Stranger by the Lake it portrayed itself as this dark, vivid and bright thriller, a film that looks inside the darkness that consumes some of us and the fact that some people out their are drawn to it in an unexplainable way. What the film is however is a sensationalised story of murder and homoerotica that doesn’t so much tell a story as it does fit a story around a series of graphic sex scenes.
Stranger by the Lake follows Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps) as he inexplicably meets Michel (Christophe Paou) on a beach in the middle of summer. The beach in question is a hotspot for men to meet other men and thus begins a relationship that is both wonderful and dangerous at the same time with Franck stuck in the middle of the two sides of Michel’s personality wondering which one is going to win out, the gentleman or the menace.
While the visuals are lush and vibrant with bright colours, interesting cinematography and an enviable eye for detail the film lacks a personal touch. The characters are so consumed by their own private dramas that they rarely act like real people with Michel at times being on the fence between believable and cartoonish. His monstrous side is something to fear but it rarely seems like Michel, instead like a completely different character entirely.
This sense of two sides to everything percolates through the film and its not long until you are wondering what Franck has in his closet but the film fails to use the films many unique selling points and have turned a dark tale into something sordid when it didn’t need to be, In the end of it all this is a film that plays to the arthouse crowd and isnt afraid of that fact but it does mean that what you will find here is not quite what you want or expect.