Gay filmmaker François Ozon’s movie adaptation of “The Stranger” (Music Box Films), based on Albert Camus’ 1942 novella of the same name, is the third time the book has been adapted for the screen. However, it may be the first time that audience members might have to decide which is more breathtaking - the black and white photography or the actor in the lead role?
“The Stranger” opens with a sort of newsreel providing a little history about the Parisian influence in Algiers, “blending Occident and Orient,” making it a new city “soaring to greater heights,” despite the “tensions.” One such example is Meursault (the beautiful Benjamin Voisin, who has previously worked with Ozon), the only non-Algerian in a group prison cell. When asked by another inmate what he did, he replied, “I killed an Arab.”
Flashing back to the recent past, Meursault receives a telegram informing him that his mother is deceased and the burial is the following day. At work, he shows his boss the telegram and is granted two days off to attend the funeral. He borrows a tie and black arm band and catches a bus out of the city. Meursault meets with the rest home director where his mother resided, who informs him that she wanted a religious burial and mass, which involves the other residents attending the wake and funeral.
Back in the city, he interacts with neighbors, including Raymond (Pierre Lottin), Salamano (Denis Lavant) and his mangy dog, and typist Marie (Rebecca Marder), with whom he begins a sexual relationship. Additionally, Meursault also becomes involved in a plot to exact revenge on Raymond’s unfaithful girlfriend (Hajar Bouzaouit), whom Raymond is known to have assaulted.
The issue is that the girlfriend’s brother Moussa (Abderrahmane Dehkani) and his friends have been harassing Raymond about the physical abuse. A confrontation between Meursault and Moussa at the beach, where the indigenous man and his friends have followed Meursault, Marie, and Raymond, results in the death of Moussa at Meursault’s hands.
“The Stranger” moves back and forth between the days following Meursault’s mother’s passing, and his imprisonment and trial for murder. In addition to being a comment on colonialism, “The Stranger” also deals with the way a person’s actions are observed and how opinions of others are formed even without knowing much about them.
Meursault is thought to be “strange” because he says whatever he likes, no matter how hurtful. His insensitivity could be used against him. In court, the prosecutor accuses him of “burying his mother with the heart of a criminal.” Even in his own voice, when describing shooting the victim five times, Meursault says it was “like knocking four quick times on misfortune’s door.” His rejection of religious comfort and acceptance of his fate are examples of why, despite Camus’ objections, “The Stranger” is considered a masterwork of existentialism.
Rating: B+
