GAYS ON FILM

Full-Frontal Male Nudity Is The Norm In Sundance Pick “Stranger By The Lake”

Screen Shot 2014-02-20 at 3.44.52 PMThe demand for gay sex on television is on the rise, and shows like HBO’s Looking are undoubtedly paving the way toward a future where gay love gets just as much screen time as straight love.

But the film industry is arguably just as nude-phobic when it comes to naked men—we live in a time where gratuitous full-frontal female nudity on film is applauded, and the tamest glimpses of male peen are threatened with X-ratings.

French filmmaker Alain Guiraudie is looking to squash that double-standard with Stranger by the Lake, a “low key-thriller” and two-time prize-winning selection from the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, now getting a second wind as a featured international selection at Sundance 2014.

Despite being a low-budget film shot in a single location, Stranger by the Lake is being hailed as “impressive” and “tantalizingly erotic,” a masterpiece that just so happens to include very graphic gay sex and a cast that remains fully nude “for 95% of the film.”

The film centers on Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps), a handsome young man cruising for gay sex on a nude beach:

The setting is a lake in the French countryside, specifically the side of the lake that is a popular cruising spot. Towels, shoes and naked bodies are scattered along the shore, a mix of regulars and newcomers. Trees ring the lake as well, a respite from the sun and shelter for the sex that is more of a draw than the water.

It’s technically a “thriller,” with murderous undertones.

Last year, Deladonchamps spoke with Daily Xtra about the film’s gratuitous nudity:

I don’t have any problem with my own nudity. I think, I’m like that, and everybody is a human being, and, I mean, What the fuck?

Our sentiments exactly.

Check out the trailer below, as well as some NSFW screen caps:

643516vlcsnap2013112118h18m35s44 tumblr_mxo23tKVXM1qzpdnho1_1280 Stranger by the Lake strangerbythelake Stranger by the lake 2

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