Stranger By The Lake (dir. Alain Guiraudie) - Review

dir. Alain Guiraudie

Stranger By The Lake

Words By Avalon Lyndon

So you’ve met this guy. He’s hot, he’s got a tache that would put Magnum PI to shame, and he’s a pretty nifty swimmer. What’s not to like?

Now picture this: a scenic lake in a quiet corner of the French countryside. The summer sun glistens off the water’s surface, dappling sand, trees and sunbathing bodies with warm light.

It’s the kind of scene that

would make for prime Lonely Planet guide territory, if not for one salient detail. The lake and its surrounding beach are a prime cruising spot for the area’s gay men, with the foliage serving as somewhere to get better acquainted.

It’s high season, and the regulars arrive in droves, exchanging glances – some furtive, others blatant – and heading off into the bushes.

Guiding us through this hidden world is Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps), a wide-eyed summertime regular – trusting, kind and a little naïve.

Franck is captivated by shadowy figure Michel (Christoph Paou), finding himself surprisingly willing to overlook the newcomer’s troublesome predilection for cold-blooded murder. At the same time, he strikes up a sweet and seemingly platonic friendship with portly loner Henri (Patrick d’Assumcao), who comes to the beach every day to do nothing more

than watch.

When a body is pulled from the lake, the cruising spot’s regularas-clockwork rhythms are thrown off-kilter as the police arrive to gather evidence. We watch Franck become increasingly obsessed with the danger his relationship with Michel brings, almost aroused by the idea of his own self-destruction.

Violence and sex become so

intertwined – a blur of heavy breathing and flailing limbs – that we begin to find it hard to even distinguish between the two.

Death has disturbed the quiet symbiosis of the community, but the police are surprised to see how reluctant the men are to talk. This drives home the strange dichotomy between intimacy and privacy which forms much of the film’s intrigue –

there’s not a lot of chance to exchange life stories in the bushes, and what happens in the shrubs stays there.

The men might have fucked each other, but that’s not to say they’ll know each others’ names.

It’s another story on the beach, however, as Franck and Henri manage to forge a real personal connection that isn’t driven by sex alone.

Guiraudie’s masterstroke comes in

his ability to mix delicate, almost sweet moments of humour into the thick molasses of tension and suspense that dominates the film’s final act. Stranger might be economical in terms of background detail, but Guiraudie and his actors shape characters that are full of life.

Following its controversial pulling and subsequent reinstatement at Cineworld venues around the UK, Stranger by the Lake opens to a limited theatrical release this weekend. Refreshingly frank, breathtakingly tense and surprisingly funny, this was one of the best films to come out of last year’s LFF. Do yourself a favour and catch it while you can.