Plot
Summertime. A cruising spot for men, tucked away on the shores of a lake. Franck falls in love with Michel. An attractive, potent and lethally dangerous man. Franck knows this, but wants to live out his passion anyway.

Release Year: 2013

Rating: 7.1/10 (1,783 voted)

Critic's Score: 90/100

Director: Alain Guiraudie

Stars: Pierre Deladonchamps, Christophe Paou, Patrick d'Assumçao

Storyline
Summertime. A cruising spot for men, tucked away on the shores of a lake. Franck falls in love with Michel. An attractive, potent and lethally dangerous man. Franck knows this, but wants to live out his passion anyway.

Cast:
Pierre Deladonchamps - Franck
Christophe Paou - Michel
Patrick d'Assumçao - Henri (as Patrick D'Assumçao)
Jérôme Chappatte - Inspecteur Damroder
Mathieu Vervisch - Eric
Gilbert Traina - L'homme du mardi soir (as Gilbert Traïna)
Emmanuel Daumas - Philippe
Sébastien Badachaoui - Le mari d'Eric
Gilles Guérin - L'homme à femmes
François-Renaud Labarthe - Pascal Ramière (as François Labarthe)
Claude Bellelle - Un naturiste
Slawomir Cieminski - Un naturiste
Jean-Marie Crémier - Un naturiste
Bernard Delavaux - Un naturiste
Bernard German - Un naturiste

Country: France

Language: French

Release Date: 12 June 2013

Runtime: 100 min

Trivia:
There was no improvisation on set. All the scenes were filmed exactly as written and the dialogue was word for word as in the script. Even the numerous sex scenes between the lead actors were extensively choreographed and rehearsed so that the crew could go on location and film the sex scenes quickly and smoothly. It also put the actors at ease as they had to just mechanically perform what they had rehearsed. See more »

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Rating:

This film tells what goes on among the men cruising by a beautiful lake in the summer, somewhere in France.

"Stranger by the Lake" is a single location film, with all scenes happening in or by the lake. The story focuses on a handsome young man who gets attracted to a dangerous man, putting his life at risk. Then, relationships between them, and a solitary man who sits by the lake gets complicated. Though the pacing is pretty slow in the beginning, the paces accelerates at lightning speed towards the end, delivering much thrills that makes people hold their breath. The ending is left open, but scenes just before the film ends are shocking and almost aggravating, evoking much gasps of horror and shouts of exasperation in the cinema.

Together with the highly explicit scenes, "Stranger by the Lake" is quite an thrilling eye opener that tells the truth in a cruising ground, and how love is completely blind.

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