Stranger by the Lake (French: L'Inconnu du lac) (2013) Director: Alain Guiraudie Watched: April 2017 6/10 The Story, Ostensibly: A cruising spot for men, tucked away on the shores of a lake. Franck falls in love with Michel, an attractive, potent and lethally dangerous man. Franck knows this but wants to live out his passion anyway.The Story, Really: All the clothes in this film would barely fill a small box. A lot of gay sex. Many artistic long shots. Even more held shots of penises hanging out. Intriguing, but the casual handling of all the penises and the prolonged scenes with nothing but sex sounds was a little distracting. #FilmReview #LGBT

I'm a fan of Hitchcock but Hitchcock, this is not. Hitchcock authored MYSTERIES AND THRILLERS. This is nothing but intense gay pornography. I'm an open-minded person who loves foreign, indie and all kinds of films, especially subtitles. But this was just...bad. I watched it through to ensure an accurate review. If you removed all the close-up gay scenes, money shots, oral and just plain pornography, the actual dialogue and story take up only 10 minutes. Moreover, it's incredibly predictable and left no plot twist. Then again, THIS FILM IS ABSENT OF A PLOT. The entire movie is nothing but a gay man cruising for risky gay sex at a lake which is a known gay hangout, at which time he witnesses a murder. There is no suspense. There is nothing but hardcore adult scenes and close-up shots of what's happening in those adult scenes. In the USA I'm fairly certain this would be rated "X" for adult because there's nothing but come shots in rapid succession...oral, hand, back end, anything gay, it happens here. But no actual STORY. I waited for a plot to emerge until the end and nothing happened, except for more hardcore adult scenes. Is there some secret message hidden in this film that I'm missing? Don't be gay because you'll get killed at a lake? Shoot your spunk to the left? I'm all about erotic but this is not. Just scene after scene after scene of passionless risky gay scenes at a beach. Another reviewer compared this to Rear Window. It is nothing like Hitchcock but NOW I get the joke! A million close-ups of rears in the scenes!

The good news first: If you are into men - Pierre Deladonchamps and Christophe Paou are quite sexy and bare it all - full frontal nudity throughout the flick.Unfortunately, two beefy guys are a lame excuse for the lack of a decent story line. Let's see: We have Franck, who obviously carries his brain in his dick. So he does what any homosexual would do after he witnesses the guy he has the hots for killing his lover: He digs him up and screws with him. Makes sense, doesn't it?We have the killer, Michel, who not only kills his boyfriend but in the course of the film also a Police agent. Now isn't he clever? The agent may have been stupid enough to return to the crime scene alone – but it's more than likely that he has a list of suspects in his office so when he gets killed, his colleagues will start to check whom he interviewed last.Than we have Franck's platonic relationship with Henri – he really seems to care about him. But this subplot leaves the impression that the writer just wanted to show that the character Franck is not entirely driven by his penis – and fill up time. Because in the end Franck's relation with Henri does not stop him from bonking a murderer. What sense does it make to show Franck's compassionate side if it's in the end still his wiener that rules?As so often with french films, there's no real end. We don't learn whether Michel get's caught, and if not, whether Franck finally wises up and terminates his dangerous liaison with Henri.Not very much for 100 minutes – which, by the way, appear much longer while sitting through this bore.And as for the full frontal nudity: If that's what you lust for, rent a porn.

I am not a gay man, and so I can say that this film had a beauty, it wasn't porn, it was about gay men on a lake, doing what any couple's do, talking etc etc.The film didn't have a core story, it was like watching a poem without words, with the lake being the observer.If find continental films very poetic in most case, very philosophical, this movie tended to be this way.Rating this movie is not easy because it did have quality. I have given it 4.It wasn't porn, it was slow, chatty, highly sexual, and it gave an overview of the world of gay men.