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.

摘要

与阿兰·吉罗迪 (Alain Guiraudie) 的惊悚片L'Inconnu du lac/湖边陌生人(2013)相关的未知数之一是这部电影的真正含义。这部电影以一个男人与男人发生性关系的湖为背景，讲述了主人公弗兰克，尽管目睹了那个男人淹死了他的情人，但他还是追求与男人的关系。尽管一些评论将这部电影解读为关于随意性行为或 HIV 危险的寓言，但本文认为关键主题是“可知性”问题：我们如何了解、阅读和建立联系？电影本身如何与更广泛的观众建立联系是本文要解决的另一个问题。为此，考虑了与其可读性相关的三个方面。第一个与类型有关：电影如何打破致命男人的一般惯例惊悚片。第二个与空间有关，Guiraudie 的湖畔被比作 Jean-Didier Urbain 在海滩上的写作。第三个是叙事，特别是影片中三个“读者”角色的自我反省元素。这篇文章将争辩说，Guiraudie 的电影最终超越了社群主义的问题，在日益孤立的世界中提供了一种后酷儿的联系愿景。