Stranger by the Lake (2013)

[GxyExpress999]

Originally Posted by jaaguir

Hi,

are the subtitles in the UK version also forced, or removable?
Does anybody know?

Thanks,

I'll check for you when I get home, unless someone responds here sooner.

[Arlington]

As I mentioned last page:

Originally Posted by Arlington

The English subs are forced.

[GxyExpress999]

Originally Posted by Arlington

As I mentioned last page:

Yep, I've checked it as well, burnt subtitles.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Stranger by The Lake aka L'Inconnu du Lac has rhythm, I'll grant that. Even if you wonder who these people are that have all day to spend at a cruiser beach, there's a admirably distinct metronomic beat which is skilfully built upon as the film advances. The plot is simple, but effective - Franck, a young and handsome gay dude falls hard for the athletic Michel. At their first meeting Michel already has a partner, but is obviously drawn towards Franck. One evening, Franck happens to see Michel drown his boyfriend. How the crime and its subsequent investigation, and his relationship with Michel affect Franck forms the rest of the narrative. Throughout the running time, the pace is measured by following Franck's routine. There's a subdued, naturalistic vibe to the visuals and performances, which proves effective to the telling of the story, although at the very end there are some ludicrous events, which I shall not spoil here. On the whole, a quite watchable low-key emotional suspense with some caveats:
Don't watch this film if you're homophobic or easily offended by male nudity. A hefty chunk of it has man-junk on view and even a shot of ejaculation (oops), so this is probably not what you would consider family entertainment.

Please read the content of my original post before this.

While I was a little unsure after my first watch, the film on second viewing (4 years later) held up a lot better. Because I already knew the sequence of events, I was better able to appreciate the pacing and Guiraudie's naturalistic direction. Even the stuff towards the end I earlier found abrupt and ludicrous fits in better and makes sense within the film's presentation. Apparently the first cut of the film was almost 140 min, but I'm glad it went through a revision. The current 100 min cut seems perfect, sufficient to depict the repetitive rhythms of the setting, yet not artistically indulgent (unlike a certain other over-hyped movie having a central gay relationship, with 'Blue' in the title).

I got the film on the UK blu-ray which is region-free. SBTL was captured digitally with the Red Epic in natural light and is not a conventional visual showcase (even though the location itself is gorgeous), but the blu-ray encode is quite capable and I assume accurately represents the intended look. There are options of lossless stereo (PCM) and 5.1 (DTS-HDMA) tracks. I went with the latter, but considering the film's very low-key style and complete absence of music, there were only a couple of occasions I noticed any rear speaker activity (including one where a search helicopter is going over the lake). Supplements include conversations with the director and lead cast (each running around a half hour), short films and some additional promotional material.

[disrember]

Originally Posted by ravenus

While I was a little unsure after my first watch, the film on second viewing (4 years later) held up a lot better. Because I already knew the sequence of events, I was better able to appreciate the pacing and Guiraudie's naturalistic direction. Even the stuff towards the end I earlier found abrupt and ludicrous fits in better and makes sense within the film's presentation. Apparently, the first cut of the film was almost 140 min, but I'm glad it went through a revision. The current 100 min cut seems perfect, sufficient to depict the repetitive rhythms of the setting, yet not artistically indulgent (unlike a certain other over-hyped movie having a central gay relationship, with 'Blue' in the title).

I got the film on the UK blu-ray which is region-free. SBTL was captured digitally with the Red Epic in natural light and is not a conventional visual showcase (even though the location itself is gorgeous), but the blu-ray encode is quite capable and I assume accurately represents the intended look. There are options of lossless stereo (PCM) and 5.1 (DTS-HDMA) tracks. I went with the latter, but considering the film's very low-key style and complete absence of music, there were only a couple of occasions I noticed any rear speaker activity (including one where a search helicopter is going over the lake). Supplements include conversations with the director and lead cast (each running around a half hour), short films and some additional promotional material.

When you know that the whole premise of the film is a story about the HIV epidemic and the murderer is HIV and that people carried on having sex, when they didn't know who the murder/HIV was... and then when they did, they carried on anyway, it all makes sense. Particularly when you see some peoples desire for sex and the quality of sex is a risk worth taking, hence the graphic scenes.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by disrember

When you know that the whole premise of the film is a story about the HIV epidemic and the murderer is HIV and that people carried on having sex, when they didn't know who the murder/HIV was... and then when they did, they carried on anyway, it all makes sense. Particularly when you see some peoples desire for sex and the quality of sex is a risk worth taking, hence the graphic scenes.

Actually that notion of the killer being a metaphor for HIV never occurred to me. I regarded the film as a low-key naturalistic noir thriller, riffing on something like Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. Even though Michel's character was never particularly defined (like most of the film's characters), I regarded him as an individual and it worked quite well for me from that angle. But is it a consistent metaphor, because

[Show spoiler]towards the end you see Michel killing Henri and the Inspector, both of whom are at best bystanders to the affairs of the lake. In comparison Ramiere was pretty much the only active participant who got killed by the murderer