All in plain sight

Stranger by the Lake, a French gay drama written and directed by Alain Guiraudie, depicts a love triangle that develops at a cruising area and turns into a murder investigation.

In the film, Franck (Pierre Deadonchamps) befriends newcomer Henri (Patrick d’Assumçao), but he lusts after Michel (Christophe Paou). Even though Franck spies Michel drowning his boyfriend, Ramière (François-Renaud Labarthe), he can’t resist coupling up with the murdering hunk.

However, once their affair begins, Franck is frustrated that his relationship with Michel is limited to their lakeside assignations. Curiously, both men lie to Inspector Damroder (Jérômre Chappatte), who is investigating Ramière’s death. This seductive erotic thriller — which is shot in a series of hypnotic, repetitive sequences — plays with issues of attraction and voyeurism, as well as trust and truth as the characters strip down on the beach, swim naked in the lake and stroke and sometimes suck each other off in the woods.

Director Alain Guiraudie’s film is incredibly atmospheric and uninhibited. Viewers will be breathing heavy during the erotic trysts and as the tension increases in the final reel as a series of violent murders occur.

Guiraudie spoke (with the assistance of a translator) about creating his seductive, erotic thriller.

Gary M. Kramer: Your entire film is shot on a nude beach, in the water, and in the woods. The all-male cast appears more frequently than not sans clothes. Can you discuss what you spent on costumes and locations?

Alain Guiraudie: (Laughs, answers in English). The beach was free. The costumes were 1,500 Euros. Expensive!

GMK: Your film is very much about voyeurism and the male gaze — there’s a scene in which Franck spies a murder, and men in the woods are looking at other guys having sex.

AG: The theme of voyeurism wasn’t predominant for me. I think what I was more interested in was about how to look, and how things look. One of the questions I was interested in was, ‘How do you show naked men on the beach? How do you film them when you are opposite them?’ When you are looking directly at them, if they have their legs spread out, their sexual organs are going to appear in the image. I thought I could move the camera slightly off to the side, but in the end, we decided it was better to do it in this very frontal way.

GMK: Why was that?

AG: Because that’s how it is! I’ve gone to these kinds of nude beaches and that’s what you see. This is really a film where nothing is hidden. There were some things need to be hidden, but nothing about the body needs to be hidden.

GMK: You show Michel drowning his boyfriend in the water through the trees. Why did you make this murder unambiguous?

AG: I wanted the viewer to know exactly the same information that Franck knew. I didn’t want it to be a psychological film…so it was really obvious for me to let the audience know. The main thrust of the plot is here is Franck being caught between his desires and the ethical and moral questions — should I turn this guy into the police because he just killed someone?

GMK: Can you talk about the love triangle between Henri, Franck, and Michel?

AG: I think what is very interesting is that it posits two very different approaches to love and desire. On one hand, you have the relationship between Franck and Michel, very sexual, and the desire is all consuming and that is the primary aspect of that relationship. But then you have the relationship between Franck and Henri…a relationship that’s more disturbing, less clear what it is about. It’s certainly friendship, but you can also say that it’s a love relationship between Franck and Henri, too. The way they all interact with each other — the circular motion — really became evident during the editing process.

GMK: How did you work with your actors?

AG: I think a large part of the work was actually done during casting. What was important was to find two actors that would work together well as a couple. When they actually did come together, a lot of that work had been done in advance by casting them.

See the official trailer or find local show times for Stranger By The Lake at ofcnow.co/stranger