L'Inconnu du lac (2013)
Directed by Alain Guiraudie

Film Review

The relationship between sex and death is a theme that has rippled through Alain Guiraudie's work for a quarter of a century but it attains its fullest and most tragic expression in L'Inconnu du lac, his poetic allegorical masterpiece.  Inspired by the writing of Georges Bataille (who once observed that the act of sex is in time what the tiger is in space), Guiraudie conjures up an unsettling but enthralling fable in which a pleasure-seeking innocent succumbs to a predator of the night, his carnal urges heightened by the prospect of a brutal death at the hands of a dangerous killer.  As ever with Guiraudie, an artist of bewildering complexity, it is far from clear what message, if any, he intends to convey.   On the face of it, the film appears to be the most savage indictment of the hedonistic gay lifestyle, but on reflection it can just as easily be read as a tragic romance and a virulent attack on a society that to this day remains stubbornly homophobic and too judgemental of gays.

The film's tonal variation is as striking as its moral ambiguity.  Fusing naturalistic drama, comedy, romance, eroticism and thriller into a strangely beguiling oneiric mix, L'Inconnu du lac has a style and texture that are as creepily unfamiliar as they are appealing.  Jean Eustache and Robert Bresson are well represented in Guiraudie's minimalist style of direction, with long static shots conveying far more than is apparent on the screen.  Recurring shots of a car park and the titular lake seem to be charged with hidden menace, increasingly so as the drama slowly unfolds towards its terrifying climax.  Similarly, long scenes in which the camera is fixed on pairs of characters luxuriating in the sun and exchanging seemingly banal snatches of conversation hint at something far more sinister beneath the surface.  Even before the first murder takes place, we are convinced that within this secluded garden of Eden there lurks a terrible destructive menace.

Franck is the archetypal gay hedonist, so blasé about sex that he is willing to surrender his body to just about anyone without the slightest regard to the risk of STDs.   Played with astonishing realism by Pierre Deladonchamps (the actor was justly honoured with the Most Promising Actor César in 2014 for this role), Franck is a sympathetic and convincing character who cannot help but resemble an innocent in a children's fairytale.  His craving for sex (apparent in some scenes that may be a little too explicit and hardcore for some spectators) suggests an inner insecurity and loneliness, and this impression is reinforced by the ease with which he strikes up an instant rapport with an even sadder specimen of humanity: Henri, a middle-aged man who desperately needs the companionship of his own sex, not sex itself, after his wife left him.  Spiritually, the sexually promiscuous Franck is far better matched with the sexually inert Henri than he is with the anonymous saddos who hang about in the bushes looking for a quick, no-strings shag.  Unfortunately, Franck's physical needs prove stronger than his spiritual needs and he becomes an easy prey for the stunning hunk of bronzed meat that comes into view just when he needs it most.

Is it the sex instinct or the death instinct that draws Franck to the mysterious stranger Michel, a sexual predator who prowls these idyllic environs like some species of wild carnivore?  We can never be sure, but as Franck spies on Michel's killing of his present lover from a distance, his heavy breathing is as suggestive of sexual arousal as it is of fear.  Franck's fear is more than apparent when he embarks on his physical relationship with Michel, and as his fear grows so does the intensity of his lovemaking.  After refusing to accompany Michel on a swim in the lake, perhaps expecting a repetition of the scene he has already witnessed, Franck then does the improbable - he swims out to join the killer, the prospect of death now a subconscious stimulus for his sexual arousal.  In the next shot (the most beautifully composed in the entire film), the two men's muscly frames are tightly entwined on the pristine shingle beach like a heap of flotsam, their passion reaching a fierce crescendo in a sustained mutual orgasm.  The descending sun blazes for an instant longer.  And then the night falls.

After this flight to infinity, Franck no longer has anything left to give Michel, and he knows it.  The only thrill left is to become the killer's next victim.  And yet still he cannot bring himself to betray his potential murderer.  He lies - unconvincingly - to an odd-looking police inspector  (the kind that would be comfortably at home in a Claude Chabrol thriller) and keeps returning to the beach, but with increasing trepidation.  Guiraudie manages the transition from languorous comedy-drama to full-on psycho-sexual-thriller with such ease and dexterity that you cannot be sure exactly where the switch takes place, but it is clear that for the film's final half an hour we are in very different territory.  Before, we were merely a voyeur looking on from a distance, like Franck watching Michel's murderous antics in the lake.  Now, suddenly, we are in Franck's shoes and feel, as he feels, the danger that is breathing down his neck, that primal terror of the night.  Gone is the limpid realism of the first part of the film, and in its place we are in the midst of a dreamlike fantasy where anything is possible.  It is now that the blatant carnality takes a much bloodier turn, with a deranged killer resorting to far more gruesome methods of releasing bodily fluids.  This isn't reality.  It must be a nightmare...  But as the night closes in on Franck and he is left, alone and terrified on the edge of an abyss, it is apparent that the protagonist has only just woken up.  The dreaming is over.

Film Synopsis

A secluded beach beside a placid lake provides a haven for a handful of men who feel the need to strip off and surrender themselves to the sun's rays and the admiring gaze of others.  Most of them are gay and come here in search of casual sex with strangers.  Franck is one such man, a seasonal worker in his late twenties who visits the beach every day to enjoy the freedom the location offers.  He strikes up a friendship with an older, paunchier man, Henri, who has no interest in sex and comes here seeking only the companionship of other men after his wife left him.  After a number of meaningless sexual encounters, Franck is drawn to an attractive moustached man with an athlete's physique.  One day, Franck hangs out in the woods by the beach longer than usual and he witnesses one man drown another in the lake.  The man who swims to the shore, the killer, turns out to be the stranger with the moustache.  So intense are Franck's feelings for this bronzed hulk that he cannot resist befriending him and they are soon having passionate sex.

The stranger introduces himself as Michel and although he appears to reciprocate Franck's feelings for him he refuses to meet anywhere other than on the beach.  Franck continues having sex with Michel, even though he knows he is putting himself in danger.  Not long after a dead body is fished from the lake, a police inspector begins prowling the vicinity and one by one questions the men on the beach, warning them that a killer may be at large.  Franck keeps to himself what he witnessed, although he already suspects that Michel may be a serial killer.  Henri has already guessed what Franck knows to be true and drops hints to Michel that he knows the identity of the killer.  When he returns to the beach after swimming in the lake, Franck sees Henri being savagely attacked with a knife by his lover...