Stranger by the Lake/L'Inconnu du Lac (2013) or, Danger & Desire

♥♥♥♥

The colorful, appetizing poster for Alain Guiraudie's Stranger by the Lake

QUICK REVIEW:

Our protagonist is a young man who hangs out a summer on a beach by a big lake, which is also a gay cruising spot. Here he finds a steady but discrete partner. Then one day, a man is found drowned in the lake.

Stranger is a very special film: It has no music whatsoever, no women whatsoever; it takes place almost solely by the lake and is almost totally without any artificial lighting. And it includes lots of nudity and explicit gay sex.
After a while I started to get a little bored during the first half of the film, as we only spend time with our protagonist, and the thriller plot only gets started almost halfway into the movie, which is relatively late. But the tension then builds steadily until the end, at which point it reaches pure nail-biting suspense.
There is something baroque about the human interactions on this spot, and Stranger has a good eye for the fascinating aspects of this reality.
Stranger also has a cool poster (see above) and is a smart film by any measure; a little cold, perhaps, but certainly good. The curious police commissioner in the movie spikes the cruising-'community' very poignantly at one point near the end and approaches what is thematically at the heart of Stranger by the Lake: The anxiety and insecurity of random sexual encounters.
The movie is written and directed by 50 year-old Alain Guiraudie (No Rest for the Brave (2003)), and it is his 7th feature.

Pierre Deladonchambs won Most Promising Actor at the 39th Cesar Awards for his performance in Alain Guiraudie's Stranger by the Lake. Here he is caught in a moment of uncertainty and anxiousness in the water

 Watch the official US trailer here

Cost: 1.3 mil. $
Box office: 1.2 mil. $
= Flop
[Although Stranger by the Lake was a financial flop, it was a critical smash hit: Premiering at Cannes '13, it won Guiraudie the award for Best Director at the Un Certain Regard section, as well as the festival's Queer Palm award, and it holds a 7.8 critic average on Rotten Tomatoes and trickles through gay and/or cinephile circles everywhere due to its unusual material and firm thriller hold.]

What do you think of Stranger by the Lake?
If you have seen other films by Alain Guiraudie, tell us about them, please