'Cause I don't have the strength tonight to turn you away.

Stranger By The Lake
Alain Guiraudie 2013 France
Starring: Pierre Deladonchamps, Christophe Paou, Patrick d’Assumçao, Jérôme Chappatte, Mathieu Vervisch


Whenever a character in a film parks their car and walks into the woods there's usually a motive. In this case, the woods contain a path leading to a beach being used by several naked men. When said character almost immediately joins another man walking back into the forest as if following a silent call his intent seems pretty clear but nothing happens, at least not until later. When it does the rural shagging and low-hanging scrotums are actually pretty incidental and the fact that the characters are homosexual is almost unimportant, a device possibly to test the viewers' expectations and prejudices. It's fitting really because the first murder is pretty incidental too, taking place as it does in a tiny cell of a large frame and remaining largely unseen. Indeed, it's not until twenty minutes later when a police helicopter flies overhead that it really even becomes a large part of the narrative. In an odd way for that time it's almost like it never happened. The term 'erotic film' has a bad reputation, and in most cases rightly so, but here Guiraudie breaks with tradition by making the sex (and there is a lot) less a focal point than a catalyst for and resultant point of the central murder mystery, although even that isn't treated conventionally. Right from the first crime we know who the killer is and so does main man Franck, the only mystery is who is going to survive until the end of the film. Even the motive remains unknown, less significant maybe than the act itself. Despite this Guiraudie apparently knows his cinematic history and, as a result, has filled his work with characters displaying a Hitchcockian fetishism; from Franck, who insists on being kissed as he comes and still pursues his homicidal paramour after he's seen him murder his lover (at times he even appears to be more attracted to him because of the danger), to distracted Gerard Depardieu-lookalike Henri, who visits the cruising spot to talk to people but doesn't partake in casual encounters (although it's stated that he is gay, albeit probably secretly), to voyeur Eric, who likes to watch even if the couple are just talking (in a hilarious moment he assures them that he won't listen and remains cock in hand until he's shooed away), to Michel, whose sexual technique reflects his violent tendencies; first he takes the active role in foreplay enticing them in then allows them to penetrate him both giving them the illusion of power and forcing them to make the choice to continue before finally taking charge. It's a strange, mesmerising film, equally as likely to be shot in near darkness as it is in blazing sunshine and brimming with tension and suspense, although apparently not everyone agreed. Nine people walked out. I was impressed.