Watch Stranger by the Lake 2014 Full Megashare
At the New Zealand International Film Festival, SAM BROOKS on Alain Guiraudie’s queer thriller; BRANNAVAN GNANALINGAM on Rithy Panh’s recovery of a terrible past; and ANDY PALMER on William Yang’s photographic memory.Watch Stranger by the Lake 2014 Full Megashare
When I took my seat in the audience for Stranger by the Lake, I had no doubt that what I had ahead was the gayest film in the festival, surrounded invariably by gay men and their straight women dates. I also knew that I was in for a thriller of some kind. What I didn’t know was that the film was going to combine the two.Watch Stranger by the Lake 2014 Full Megashare
Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake is a fairly standard thriller made interesting, and frankly unique, by it’s queer authorship. The film revolves around the titular lake, a place where gay men meet each other and cruise in the forest nearby. Our barely named protagonist (Pierre Deladonchamps) is like anybody else who goes to the lake; he goes meets guys, he takes off all his clothes, swims around, and then cruises in the forest. He runs into a friend (Patrick d’Assumcao), an old divorced man who isn’t there to cruise guys but just to watch the lake in peace and they form a friendship. The film really kicks into gear when a handsome, Tom Selleck-esque stranger (Christophe Paou) appears at the lake and our protagonist becomes infatuated with him.Watch Stranger by the Lake 2014 Full Megashare
It’s not the plot that makes this film remarkable. The thing that has garnered it attention on the festival circuit—a dubious enough moniker as that is—is the unsimulated gay sex. I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of it, but there’s enough of it, and it’s depicted and used in a way that believably amps up the tension and the audience’s involvement in the characters. The film has a refreshing approach to male sexuality—a surprising variety of male bodies are show onscreen with a lack of vanity or judgment, and it’s treated with equal amounts of respect and humour.Watch Stranger by the Lake 2014 Full Megashare
Beyond that, there’s an undercurrent of social commentary throughout. Guiraudie doesn’t judge the cruising of his characters, but as the film gets into darker and more foreboding territory, it’s presented as another risk the protagonist is taking and one that could lead to anything worse. The film also comments on the nature of infatuation, even though the protagonist knows that the stranger, Michel, is without a doubt dangerous, and his attraction is palpable and by far the most uncomfortable thing about the film. Outside of the all the gay sex and nudity portrayed, this man’s infatuation in the face of all reason is what made me shiver and shift awkwardly in my seat.Watch Stranger by the Lake 2014 Full Megashare
None of this is on the surface of the film. If an audience member doesn’t want to engage with it, they don’t have to. Upfront, this is an engaging, well-crafted, luxuriously paced thriller, albeit one with a niche audience. On the down-low, this is Haneke directing a Bel Ami film, and if both of those things mean anything to you, then Stranger by the Lake will be very much up your alley
Watch Stranger by the Lake 2014 Full Megashare
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