GAY MOVIE REVIEW: Stranger by the Lake

Jeff & I had a ‘date night’ this past weekend & opted for a movie. There was a really sexy-sounding one playing at the Laemmle in Pasadena, so we saw that one: 

Stranger by the Lake

PLOT: This French film takes place in the summer at a nude cruising spot for men, tucked away on the shores of a lake. Franck falls in love with Michel. But one evening, after wandering around a little too late, Franck spots Michel holding a ‘trick’ underwater, drowning him in the lake.  Despite this, Franck continues to see Michel.  Their relationship becomes strained when the trick’s body is found a few days later & the police start questioning them both about what they know.

REVIEW:  First of all, I think I should mention that there’s a lot of full-frontal male nudity in this movie; it’s set at a nude beach, after all. There’s also several (hot) sex scenes & all that, so it pretty much delivers in that area. Both Jeff & I thought it was done extremely well, but couldn’t figure out the ‘point’ of the movie until the next day. At first we assumed it was a ‘cautionary tale’ of the dangers of anonymous sex but that doesn’t hold a lot of water because Franck *does* know who Michel is and stays with him anyway. Later, Jeff told me that the way it ends (Franck, hiding from a murderous Michel, finally comes out of hiding & starts calling for him – FADE TO BLACK) tells him that “Franck is so afraid of loneliness that he would rather call out to ‘his killer’ than be alone” which coincides better with some of the other character’s storylines in the movie (there is a an older guy that Franck befriends who doesn’t swim or sleep around in the film; he just sits there watching everyone else, probably because he’s looking for a friend more than sex).

On the downside, the film also has no soundtrack, making it a bit boring. And the ending is a little abrupt, which left us wanting more of a resolution. But otherwise I found this an interesting, yet subtle, film to watch. 

Here’s the trailer!