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| Images courtesy of Les Films du losange |
The quietest movies can often be more tense that those with swelling orchestral cues. Stranger By The Lake (2013) effectively uses only the natural sounds found at a secluded lakeside beach to build a tense, sometimes-erotic thriller.
Wind blowing through the trees, soft waves lapping at a beach , walking through tall grass and twigs in a forest are the only soundtrack for this sexually explicit thriller set at a secluded, gay cruising beach in rural France. Many scenes also use only the natural light at the beach or in the forest, making some scenes hard to decipher if the brightness isn’t turned up on whatever screen you watch this on.
This style of film creates an impartial, omniscient narrator that presents the events just as they are instead of overdramatizing scenes or making the explicit sex titillating. The depiction of cruising is not romanticized at all, with the gritty realities put on full display for the viewer: anonymous, transactional encounters and the resulting detritus become plot points early on. Some dialogue further describes how married men come to the beach for discreet encounters.
Young and handsome Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps), a regular at the beach, is the protagonist that knows regulars and is often sought after by others. When middle-aged, overweight newcomer Henri (Patrick d'Assumçao) appears at the far edge of the beach, Franck visits him. Their brief conversation is typical of a cruising spot, with each trying to feel the other out by asking vague, but ultimately telling, questions. Franck learns Henri is newly single, straight, and not looking for sex. Instead, Henri likes the peace and silence of the beach. Their brief conversations develop a friendship with each new day and interaction.
However, Franck is quickly distracted by the extremely attractive and mysterious Michel (Christophe Paou). Franck frequently ditches Henri to go look for Michel in the woods or to swim out to meet Michel in the lake.
Names and numbers aren’t always exchanged at this cruising spot, which makes things complicated for a police inspector who begins questioning the regulars. A body is found near the beach, and inspector Chappette (Jérôme Chappatte) begins putting together a narrative of the night the dead man went missing.
Michel and Franck develop a regular routine at the beach and in the woods, but never see each other beyond that. We don’t learn any more about these characters since the entire movie takes place at the beach or in the woods nearby. People are only whomever they are while at the beach, which adds to the tension of the story.
Franck’s relationships with Michel and Henri escalate in contrasting ways, which serves as a commentary on stereotypes, orientation, and different kinds of intimacy.
All four characters become entangled in a climax that is tense and frightening in it’s quietness. The violent and ambiguous conclusion is all the stronger for having only wind and waves as its soundtrack. The viewer is left to reflect the characters’ pursuit of intimacy, lust, and mystery.
Like other sexually explicit films, for example, Shortbus, Stranger doesn’t use the real sex to titillate but instead to develop its themes. This film was nominated for numerous European and queer film awards while also winning nineteen of them.
Stranger By The Lake is currently streaming on Kanopy.
- EB