The Stranger
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“Why did you kill that man? Why destroy our happiness?”
Overview
François Ozon (Swimming Pool, 8 Women, Under the Sand) renders Albert Camus’ landmark novella in blistering black and white in The Stranger. Meursault (Benjamin Voisin) lives a cold, detached existence – he didn't even shed a tear at his mother's funeral. One day at the baths he casually begins an affair with his colleague Marie (Rebecca Marder), then gets mixed up with some messy business with his volatile neighbour (Pierre Lottin), and soon enough Meursault finds himself standing trial for a terrible and inexplicable thing he did on an Algerian beach one sweltering afternoon.
“Lustrously beautiful and superbly realised... passionately honours the original text while bringing a contemporary perspective to its themes of empire and race”
“A sensual and haunting work. Ozon expertly blends the personal and the political”
“Glorious. A masterpiece with cryptic allure”
“Confounding, disturbing and yet icily compelling”
Why See This Film
A set text in the existentialist canon, Camus' classic tale of dissociation and morality in French-colonised Algeria has for a long time seemed unadaptable for its dense interiority, but Ozon rises to the challenge with captivating style and a contemporary lens. Emphasising the rippling heat of a charged society on the boil with rich monochrome photography, The Stranger successfully evokes Camus’ shades of grey – between intimacy and disaffection, the mysterious and mundane, intention and action – with compelling affect and fresh perspective.
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