Stranger by the Lake (2013)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

The Worst Film Ever

Blistering performances.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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.

When a film is billed as a "tense thriller" there are only two things I am looking for in my viewing experience: for the film to be tense and for the film to be a thriller. Good lord this film tried my patience. In the 100 minute running time, we are treated to slowly watching the protagonist (Franck) drive into the lakeside parking area and park his car a dozen different times. Apparently, this is to cue the audience that time has past. Franck makes no decisions that make any sense. His friendship with Henri goes nowhere. His relationship with Michel goes nowhere. There is no story arc (important, to not only good storytelling, but if you want to build tension.) There is no character development. There are no redeeming qualities. At all. (To the film's credit, however, Pierre Deladonchamps (Franck) does his utmost to keep this film afloat.) No time during this chore of a film was I tense, nor was I ever thrilled. What I was, in spades, was bored.Gay cinema needs to start getting better than this.

a crime movie more than a gay one. a psychological drama more than a crime one. a film about the fragility of few men, easy to reduct to nudity or sex scenes. the end is the key to a sentimental triangle who defines each of lead characters. the sexual relation as love, the confessions and the empty state of soul, the forms of solitude and the stereotypes , the cars and the lake, the forest as refuge, each as symbol of forms of isolation and looking of sense in the other. a film who need review. for understand, behind the images, the significance of dialogs, gestures and compromises. portrait of society as a kind of parable.

I didn't dislike the movie. I even admire the lengths the actors went in the explicit sex scenes. But overall I think the director wanted really bad for it to last as long as it did even though the script does not have much to work on. I didn't need that shot of the car parking over and over again for example. I would have liked to know for how long Franck had had a crush on Michel for him to eventually say that he was in love. If we only see them on the cruising spot and obviously Franck had some experience it does not make sense for him to just fall in love with this guy and keep his secret. Why? I could also have used more Henri. Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate that Guiraudie allows the audience to come up with a sad story for him, but we could have had more conversations with Franck. Those talks were the soul of the movie and he obviously deserved that nomination to the Cesar awards. And then...the ending...come on! It's not an artsy film. It did need to provide some closure if the movie is not about people's connections but about the killer out there. At least it was another kind of tale.