- THE STRANGER
- Satarring: Benjamin Voison, Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin, Denis Lavant
- Directed by: François Ozon
- Not Rated
- Running time: 2 hrs 2 mins
- Music Box Films
Our score: 4 out of 5
If you go through life with an air of indifference when you see people around you acting contemptibly, is it all that surprising when you do commit murder?
That’s the setup behind Albert Camus’ 1942 novella The Stranger. When I devoured the book in college, I was stuck by how a book with such an uncaring protagonist could be so engrossing.
Veteran French director François Ozon (Swimming Pool) and co-screenwriter Philippe Piazzo follow Camus’ storyline faithfully but also look at the story from a post-colonial perspective.
As Meursault (Benjamin Voisin) goes through the motions in colonial Algiers, there’s a sense that the native population have a justified feeling of resentment toward French occupation. The tensions that would lead to the the Algerian war for independence a decade later are seething in the background. As a side note, this movie would make a great double feature with The Battle of Algiers.
Even among the French, Meursault leaves an uncomfortable impression. When his mother dies, he sheds no tears and treats her passing as a mere nuisance. When one of her mourners collapses in the heat, he simply marches on while others tend to the fallen man.
He spots his foul-tempered neighbor Salamano (the redoubtable Denis Lavant) beating his dog, while Raymond (Pierre Lottin) another resident of his apartment complex gets into scuffles with Algerians in the street and treats his sex worker girlfriend terribly.
One wonders how an automaton like Meursault has managed to attract the vibrant Marie (Rebecca Marder). She has the energy and passion he lacks, but she seems drawn to the fact that he avoids glib declarations of love. She might be attracted to the lack of phony airs. Then again it could be because there isn’t much behind his blandly handsome exterior.
Before you can say “banality of evil,” he gradually gets involved with activities a wise person would avoid. Raymond isn’t much of a writer, Meursault happily polishes his prose for a letter of ill intent.
We know where this is going because Ozun begins with the Meursault being jailed for his eventual crime. There is still plenty of tension and curiosity because Voisin imbues Meursault with just enough hints of possible humanity to keep viewers from sharing his disregard for what’s happening around him. The novel is told in first person, and the protagonist never asks for sympathy. Without resorting to voiceover, Voisin and Ozun subtly hint there might be some inner life to the undemonstrative Meursault.
Marder’s passionate Marie is a welcome complement, and Manu Dacosse’s stark black-and-white photography effortlessly recounts the period and gives the performers plenty of room to work. You can more easily spot small changes in expression or hints at danger to come.
Ozun clearly loves his source material, but he thankfully treats it as something to bring alive instead of preserve in amber.
On a scale of zero to five, “The Stranger” receives ★★★★