Stranger by the Lake is a French naturalistic erotic thriller. Got all that? The film, which takes place at a single location--a lake where gay men go to cruise--is slow moving with a plot that asks more questions than it answers.
Protagonist Franck (Pierre Delodonchamps) comes to the lake nearly every day one summer, and strikes up a friendship with loner Henri, a heterosexual man who prefers hanging out in this cruising spot because people actually talk to him (unlike the side of the lake where families go and he is treated like a "creep"). Franck also develops a crush on Michel (Christophe Paou), who looks like a slightly more rugged Freddie Mercury.
Spoiler? Or pivotal plot point? ahead:
One night after dark, Franck spies Michel out in the lake with his lover. Michel pushes the man under the water, killing him. Rather than immediately go to the police, Franck slowly becomes closer to Michel, playing dumb about his lover ("What about your man?" he asks Michel when they kiss for the first time. "He won't see us." replies Michel). The tension of the film hinges on both *why* Franck is so willing to play with fire and how much Michel knows about what Franck knows.
/end spoilers.
I found Stranger by the Lake to be fairly boring, to be honest. It's a thriller, but a very low key one. The stakes are high but the actions of the characters are confusingly passive. I read a review where the director suggests that the film can be read as a metaphor for AIDS: there is very real danger at this cruising spot, but in the haze of lust some folks are happy throwing caution to the wind. That's an interesting interpretation of the film, but it hardly breaks new ground in LGBTQ cinema.
I also found the whole "cruising spot as locale for violence" trope a little...hrrrmmm. I realize the movie isn't *trying* to be homophobic, but its suggestion that (some?) gay men will take any risk to get laid is more than a little insulting. But as I'm not a gay man, my opinion only carries so much weight here.
The one excellent aspect of Stranger by the Lake is the absolutely gorgeous cinematography. The scenery has a dreamlike quality that reminded me of Picnic at Hanging Rock. There's a lot of silence and a lot of wind blowing through the trees (it's an easy movie to fall asleep to, for better or for worse). The overhead shots of men swimming in the lake are especially striking.
But as for the plot and acting, there just wasn't enough. The characters in the film spend the vast majority of the movie naked, and there are some explicit sex scenes. But for all the nudity I never felt like I saw beyond the tanned skin of the characters: their thoughts, fears, and motivations remain, for the most part, a mystery.
3.5 out of 5 stars
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