L'Étranger

François Ozon's L'Étranger (الغريب) is a faithful adaptation of Camus's novel, except that Ozon has turned much more of an emphasis on the colonial setting. I've always held that Existential and Absurdist writers—Beckett, Kafka, Ionesco, Camus, and others in this group—were deeply political. There is a tendency in criticism of this group of writers to focus on "the human", on "existence", on "the modern" (the exceptions here are Sartre and Havel and Mrożek; their politics were always apparent, evidently). But it seems to me that politics is never far from the minds of all of these authors, and politics are everywhere in Camus's novel, so I think Ozon's emphasis makes great sense. (Indeed, Camus's title, in French, might just as well mean The Foreigner as The Stranger.) 

I hadn't read The Stranger before this week—it seems crazy, I know; everyone has read it! But I went to religious schools until college, and Camus was not on our reading lists next to the New Testament. I have, however, read two or three of Camus's plays, and, of course, his essays on Sisyphus and on violence. But I loved this novel. I can see why it's such a classic.

As always, Ozon has made a sensual, deeply sexy film, with lush production design and gorgeous photography. The way the camera lingers on the man Meursault kills is wildly intriguing, and it feels like something dangerous the film adds to the narrative. This is a very, very good adaptation. Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Marder, and Pierre Lotin (who have all been in Ozon movies before) are all great. And Swann Arlaud is fantastic as the misguided clergyman. 

I want also to share that Ozon’s film illuminated a moment for me from the novel that I hadn’t noticed before. When Marie comes to visit Meursault in the prison, and the two of them have to yell to speak to one another across the bars, there’s a young man and his mother standing next to them. They don’t say a word; they just look at one another. Until the guards force them to depart, then the boy says “Goodbye, Maman”, and the lady gives him a slow wave. It’s a small moment in L’Étranger that I didn’t notice much. In Ozon’s film this moment devastated me. Maman, is, of course, how Meursault always refers to his deceased mother, and in the film it seemed to articulate something Meursault hadn’t quite yet said. Goodbye, Maman. Tears immediately sprang to my eyes when this happened in the film. It’s a gorgeous little moment.