Genre:
Drama, Thriller, LGBT
Distributor:
Peccadillo Pictures(UK)
Release Date:
21st February 2014 (UK)
Rating: 18
Director:
Alain Guiraudie
Cast:
Pierre Deladonchamps, Christophe Paou, Patrick d'Assumçao
Watch on V.O.D: Use link on trailer below
A scenic lake in the middle of nowhere. Golden sunshine glittering off the water and a gentle breeze rustling the trees. Why have a care in the world? It's all too easy to loose the sense of one's place in reality within what seems to be this alluring safe haven. Therefore, a severe dose of tension and serious mental predicaments would seem best appropriate to stir things up in Alain Guiraudie's erotically charged work,Stranger by the Lake
The lake in question also happens to be a popular gay cruising ground for men, who seek casual encounters within the nearby woods. Over the course of the film, a young man, Franck, becomes infatuated with Michel, the epitome of masculinity and also a fellow cruiser. Along the way he also sparks a curious and unlikely friendship with the much older and heavier, Henri. Together they question their situation and life's emotional boundaries. Yet, the desire Franck holds for Michel is tested when he bares witness to a shocking scene. From here, Franck struggles between his unstoppable passions and morality when the lake falls under outsider investigation.
In their reasoning for the film's 18 certificate, the BBFC say its content contains 'strong real sex'. Unsurprisingly, the film's depiction of intimacy makes no effort in living up to this statement, nor makes it any easier to watch with the parentals. In saying this, however, rather than just have moments of needlessly explicit gay sex, the film challenges its audience by depicting scenes of eroticism through a voyeuristic eye. Being entirely set on this single lake, it's swiftly understood that the lack of clothing and nudity becomes part of the everyday. Guiraudie's choice of low angle, mid/long range shots, natural lighting and longer takes gives the sense that he is not providing his audience with a glamorised insight to a world which only a few recognise, but rather placing them in the midsts of this environment. Within the overgrown grass, discarded condom packets and various acts of copulation within the woodlands behind the lake, the audience becomes as regular an onlooker in this playground as much as the other frequent visitors.
Furthermore, the sexual activity on show is not for the purposes of being titillating. Although the actions that go on inside of this space may not be relatable to the experiences of many viewers, in having repetition through the same establishing shot at the start of a new day and the same faces throughout, the narrative scope of the story and the mind-set of its characters becomes effectively narrowed and recognisable. The process of sexual activity and the freedom of indulging various impulses allow a realistically brilliant, but simple, insight into how connecting with somebody through casual sex has become warped through the manner in which people approach intimacy and express themselves through it. A scene where Franck is fumbling in the bushes, with a man who refuses to partake in un-safe activities, creates a directly universal notion of the voracity of sexual apatite and the differing opinions and fears that have escalated out of it. Regardless of the sensual thrills that these men enjoy from sex, Guiraudie's contemporary ideas on the the blurred trajectory of human connection is one which is both engaging and mature. As the character, Henri, says; 'Why do you have to have sex to sleep together?'
Yet, underneath all the passion and lust on show, there lies intriguing poetic imagery. Being set in the middle of nowhere, the lake establishes itself as a small society. Despite the inhabitants being present and recognisable throughout, the manner in which they actually converse or even find their comfort with each other hardly represents a community at all. Torsos and sexuality may be openly shown, however, the remarkably subtle tension lies with what is masked underneath the skin of the three leading characters. Inside this supposed Eden, the expression of basic emotional humanistic traits prove sketchy. Conflict for Franck begins when he experiences and struggles with emotions that only exist outside of lake, creating a strangely claustrophobic atmosphere. The abrupt desire for emotional attachment proves alien to Franck's lover, Michel, yet reservedly unsurprising to the wiser Henri. It's only when the routine of the characters is disrupted from the enquiries of a police inspector that Franck's ideal fantasy begins to crumble once he is questioned if he actually finds it odd that nobody in the area can hold a proper conversation, or even exchange any form of personal information. With the addition of a soundtrack made purely from bird-song and changing winds blowing through the trees, to enhance this gripping tension, the danger of Franck's vulnerable eagerness for sudden emotional attachment - muddled against his lustful desires and moralistic conflict - becomes all too intense for him, culminating in a truly unnerving climax.
In being subtle in his script and character development, Guiraudie strips back the fancy frills or cliché’s that have been previously associated with more erotic or populist thrillers. Revealing more sinister ideas underneath the simplistic story, his pacing and moulding of its outcome is handled like a true professional of directing. Its sudden twists in tone and the manner in which scenes are played out recalls the skilled patience of Hitchcock and Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter,and quite rightly so at that.
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