Brave and artistically bold in its vision, performances and direction, François Ozon’s L’Étranger (The Stranger) has no intention of attempting to solve the mysteries of Camus’s novel. Neither does it attempt to attribute modern-day psychological theories to Voisin’s Meursault and his unsettling emotional detachment.
On January 4, 1960, the celebrated novelist, activist and philosopher Albert Camus died in a car accident near Sens, in the small town of Villeblevin. Camus was just 46, but he had already left behind a body of work, activism, and life experiences that had cemented his place as a cultural, political, and philosophical powerhouse. From his literary career and a Nobel Prize in Literature to his role as editor of the French Resistance newspaper, Combat, to his commentary, and often lack thereof, on his native home of French Algeria, Camus remains one of the most discussed authors and philosophers of the pre- and post-war periods. And his first short novel, L’Étranger (The Stranger), remains one of the most hotly debated French books ever published.
Until now, there have been few attempts to adapt Camus’s book for the screen aside from Luchino Visconti’s 1967 film starring Marcello Mastroianni. A film widely regarded as a failure for Visconti. The apprehension of attempting to adapt L’Étranger (The Stranger) is understandable, as not only does this story uncomfortably explore France’s colonisation of Algeria, but it is also rooted in emotional detachment, absurdism and the performance of life. It’s a book that leaves you with far more questions than answers, and, in turn, asks you to look inward toward your own performance through life, the expectations that shape it, and the social rules that guide it.
Therefore, it is a brave director who takes on Camus’s work, and an even braver one who sticks to Camus’s vision while delicately pulling on several underexplored threads held within his writing. So, does François Ozon achieve what Visconti couldn’t in 1967? The response from this critic is yes!
Ozon, like Visconti, relishes exploring the psychological underpinnings of his characters, and, like Visconti, Ozon’s films always carry an aesthetic beauty that can at times jar with the inner turmoil of the characters he brings to the screen. However, unlike Visconti’s adaptation of L’Étranger (The Stranger), Ozon’s adaptation honours the source material while also carrying a more contemporary resonance. Ozon achieves this not by updating the story but by focusing his lens on French colonial rule in Algeria with a sense of historical distance and an understanding of the politics, controls, and norms at play in relation to our modern-day political and social world.
The fantastic and alluring Benjamin Voisin stars as the emotionally mute and apathetic young Meursault, who floats through his life in French-controlled Algiers with little to no purpose or structure. Opening in a crowded prison cell, the meticulously presented and attractive Meursault is asked by an inmate why he is there. His very presence is unusual in a cell that houses indigenous Algerians, not young, blond French men. Meursault coldly replies, “I killed an Arab.” We are then taken back to Meursault receiving a telegram announcing his mother’s death in a rural care home. As we travel to the funeral, alongside Meursault, there is no emotion on display, no need to relive memories of his mother, and no intent to stay longer than he needs to at the service.
When Meursault returns, his life’s routines once again take precedence, with no thought of his loss. He begins a relationship with Marie (Rebecca Marder), one built on his mechanical need for sexual release and company, not love nor communication. He comments on his neighbours and their violent behaviours, from one who beats his dog to the other Sintès (Pierre Lottin), who beats the girls he pimps out, including an Arab young woman (Hajar Bouzaouit). Meursault may comment on their behaviour and coldly describe their actions, yet it’s clear he feels nothing and sees no reason to intervene.
When the Arab woman’s brother, Moussa (Abderrahmane Dehkani), seeks revenge against Sintès on a beach where Meursault and Marie are present, it is Meursault, not Sintès, who shoots the young Arab man in cold blood, leading us back to his imprisonment and the forthcoming trial where his emotional apathy will condemn him, not his actions.
The Arab man’s life carries no meaning or value in a country built on colonial social stratification, and there is no questioning that a young French man like Meursault would have acted in anything but self-defence. Instead, what condemns Meursault is his unwillingness to conform to the expected performance. He didn’t cry at his mother’s funeral, something viewed in court as far more shocking than the murder he committed, and he even went swimming the next day! It is his unwillingness to meet expectations, his emotional distance, and his unusual honesty that ultimately form the bedrock of his trial.
The visual beauty of Ozon’s adaptation and Voisin’s chiselled Meursault juxtapose the unnerving atmosphere Ozon crafts from Camus’s text. Fatima Al Qadiri’s score adds layers of tension to the stunning black-and-white cinematography of Manu Dacosse. At the same time, Benjamin Voisin achieves the near-impossible by keeping us hooked on Meursault despite his emotional detachment. It’s a masterful performance from Voisin as Meursault rejects societal expectations and embraces absurdity in a world he clearly believes is devoid of purpose, the socio-political realities of French Algeria weaving through the deep philosophical themes at play.
Brave and artistically bold in its vision, performances and direction, François Ozon’s L’Étranger (The Stranger) has no intention of attempting to solve the mysteries of Camus’s novel. Neither does it attempt to attribute modern-day psychological theories to Voisin’s Meursault and his unsettling emotional detachment. For this reason, like the source material, Ozon’s adaptation will find both admirers and detractors. But for this critic, Ozon’s masterful adaptation is a fascinating, alluring and challenging exploration of the absurdity of justice. And in a world where justice is distorted, and truths are manipulated to serve ideologies, it challenges our fundamental assumptions about what it means to be human, holding a mirror to our own emotional distance and disengagement in a world of constructed realities.
L’Étranger (The Stranger) is showing in cinemas nationwide from April 10.
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