The 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.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
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:
dougmc92
Queer as Folk was 12 years ago and it had WWWAAAYYYY more sex than Looking!
kurt_t
ncman, you sound like somebody who’s never used the sure fire gay beach pick up line “Ooooo, now you’re gonna have to put a quarter in my cuss jar.”
Before Grindr, semi-anonymous beach hook ups took some effort. You young people have no idea.
CleJoke
OMG! Is the Daniel Tosh in the trailer?
LOL!
Franco C.
Saw this movie in Toronto. It was… interesting.
LAman
This movie was more like an indie porno film to me. I think it was because they showed an ejaculating penis, but whatever, it’s fun if you’re gay.
Paul F
I find it strange, but when I go to nudist parks and beaches, none of the people have pink squares in front of them.
dennisjlee
I saw it at Sundance. It does have non-simulated male on male sex, matter-of-fact killing and a very interesting ending. I am glad I saw it but I would not sit through it again.
Kangol
Looks good to me. More frontal male nudity in US cinema, please!
avesraggiana
The interviewer needs to comb his hair, get new eyeglass frames, not be so artsy-creepy, and learn how to ask intelligent questions without sounding like a high school girl with a twenty-seven-word vocabulary.
Ken
We make fun of the Victorian era for being so prudish, but as a result of that prudery, they were easily titillated by anything. Today, we have the other extreme. If all actors are nude and there are explicit sex scenes everywhere, it will have a desensitizing effect, especially since real-life people aren’t as pretty when they are naked as the actors are.
There has to be a bit of an exhibitionist in any actor, so I’m not surprised that actors willing to get naked are not in short supply, but if you are naked in a film, you are naked in front of everyone forever.
fantastic4
amazing movie, loved the way..too beyond for calling it a pornography..superb…and the guys are just hot..
Rusty Alcorta
@Paul F: How strange, me too. I even looked through some of my nudie photos I took at a beach last year to see if I had missed them.
@Kangol: Go to a nudie beach, in Europe if you can, you’ll see a lot of full frontal and btw take a camera with 24 X or better.