L'inconnu du lac
by Alain Guiraudie
Invité.e.s et Rétrospectives 2024
Official synopsis
Summertime. A cruising spot for men, tucked away on the shores of a lake. Franck falls in love with Michel. An attractive, potent and lethally dangerous man. Franck knows this, but wants to live out his passion anyway.
Biography and Filmography
The eldest son of a farming family from Aveyron, Alain Guiraudie was, as a teenager, nourished by popular culture (comics, TV series, genre films). After earning his baccalauréat, he enrolled at the University of Montpellier, where his interest in activism especially grew. After writing several novels that were never published, he directed his first short film in 1990, *Les Héros sont immortels*, soon followed by *Tout droit jusqu'au matin* and *La Force des choses*.
It was with the medium-length film *Du Soleil pour les gueux* (presented at the 2000 Entrevues Belfort Film Festival and the 2000 Côté Court Festival in Pantin) that critics discovered Alain Guiraudie’s unique cinema, somewhere between modern western, picaresque tale, and philosophical fable. Another characteristic of his world is his desire to represent the working class on screen, as evidenced by *Ce vieux rêve qui bouge*, a medium-length film that won the Jean Vigo Prize and garnered significant attention at the Directors' Fortnight—Jean-Luc Godard even called it the "best film of the Cannes Festival." He then moved on to feature films without losing any of his distinctiveness. *Pas de repos pour les braves* in 2003, followed by *Voici venu le temps* in 2005, are further fragments of a political and sexual utopia, with the Southwest of France, to which Guiraudie is deeply attached, serving as the experimental ground.
*The King of Escape* (2009) was presented at the 41st Directors' Fortnight during the Cannes Film Festival. *Stranger by the Lake* (2013) was selected for the official competition in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Director award. *Staying Vertical* (2016) left empty-handed from the official competition at the 2015 Cannes Festival.
2024 : Misericordia - Alain Guiraudie - Director
2021 : Nobody’ Hero - Alain Guiraudie - Director
2016 : Staying Vertical - Alain Guiraudie - Director
2013 : Stranger by The Lake - Alain Guiraudie - Director
2009 : The King of Escape - Alain Guiraudie - Director
2005 : Time Has Come - Alain Guiraudie - Director
2003 : No Rest for the Braves - Alain Guiraudie - Director
by Alain Guiraudie
The eldest son of a farming family from Aveyron, Alain Guiraudie was, as a teenager, nourished by popular culture (comics, TV series, genre films). After earning his baccalauréat, he enrolled at the University of Montpellier, where his interest in activism especially grew. After writing several novels that were never published, he directed his first short film in 1990, *Les Héros sont immortels*, soon followed by *Tout droit jusqu'au matin* and *La Force des choses*.
It was with the medium-length film *Du Soleil pour les gueux* (presented at the 2000 Entrevues Belfort Film Festival and the 2000 Côté Court Festival in Pantin) that critics discovered Alain Guiraudie’s unique cinema, somewhere between modern western, picaresque tale, and philosophical fable. Another characteristic of his world is his desire to represent the working class on screen, as evidenced by *Ce vieux rêve qui bouge*, a medium-length film that won the Jean Vigo Prize and garnered significant attention at the Directors' Fortnight—Jean-Luc Godard even called it the "best film of the Cannes Festival." He then moved on to feature films without losing any of his distinctiveness. *Pas de repos pour les braves* in 2003, followed by *Voici venu le temps* in 2005, are further fragments of a political and sexual utopia, with the Southwest of France, to which Guiraudie is deeply attached, serving as the experimental ground.
*The King of Escape* (2009) was presented at the 41st Directors' Fortnight during the Cannes Film Festival. *Stranger by the Lake* (2013) was selected for the official competition in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Director award. *Staying Vertical* (2016) left empty-handed from the official competition at the 2015 Cannes Festival.
2024 : Misericordia - Alain Guiraudie - Director
2021 : Nobody’ Hero - Alain Guiraudie - Director
2016 : Staying Vertical - Alain Guiraudie - Director
2013 : Stranger by The Lake - Alain Guiraudie - Director
2009 : The King of Escape - Alain Guiraudie - Director
2005 : Time Has Come - Alain Guiraudie - Director
2003 : No Rest for the Braves - Alain Guiraudie - Director