Undressed to kill: knowing, reading and connecting in Alain Guiraudie’s homme fatal thriller L’Inconnu du lac

Abstract

ABSTRACT One of the unknowns associated with Alain Guiraudie’s thriller L’Inconnu du lac/Stranger by the Lake (2013) is what the film is really about. Set at a lake where men have sex with men, the film follows the protagonist Franck, who pursues a relationship with a man despite witnessing that man drown his lover. Whereas some reviews have read the film as a fable about the dangers of casual sex or HIV, this article argues that a key theme is the question of ‘knowability’: how do we come to know, to read, to make connections? How the film itself connects to a wider viewing audience is a further question this article addresses. To do so, three aspects pertinent to its readability are considered. The first relates to genre: how the film breaks with the generic conventions of the homme fatal thriller. The second pertains to space, with Guiraudie’s lakeside being compared to Jean-Didier Urbain’s writing on the beach. The third concerns narrative, specifically the self-reflexive element of three ‘reader’ characters in the film. This article will contend that ultimately Guiraudie’s film goes beyond communitarian questions to offer a post-queer vision of connectedness in a world of increasing isolation.