At its simplest, “The Stranger,” adapted by the director François Ozon from Albert Camus’s much-pondered 1942 novel, is a portrait of a killer. But Meursault (Benjamin Voisin), a clerk in 1930s Algiers during French colonial rule, is not your run-of-the-mill murderer. The act is neither premeditated nor driven by passion, because he has none — for anything, or anyone.
When his mother dies, he declines a viewing, or a pretense of grief. (“There’s no point,” he tells the disapproving attendant.) This extreme indifference makes a character who is fascinating on the page almost repellent on the screen: Unlike the novel’s first-person narration, the film allows almost no entry into Meursault’s thoughts. Instead, we pay close attention to the way others relate to him: The scabrous neighbor (Denis Lavant) who beats his dog and needs someone to sympathize when the cur disappears; the beautiful young woman (Rebecca Marder) Meursault agrees to marry, who both desires and is troubled by his cool detachment; the shady friend (Pierre Lottin) whose mistreatment of an Arab woman draws Meursault into a violent encounter with her vengeful brothers, one of whom will die.
Existential ennui is not exactly fun to watch (or, one assumes, easy to perform), yet a meaningless life has rarely looked this beautiful. Manu Dacosse’s radiant monochrome images offer their own reasons for joy, turning Algiers into a sunny, sensual tourist trap, albeit one scarred by the entrenched racism that makes the killing of an Arab man a forgivable offense. What is unforgivable is Meursault’s refusal to perform emotion or a belief in God — an armor of honesty that both Meursault’s lawyer and a jailhouse priest struggle to pierce.
Lightening any philosophical weight, Ozon adds an unexpected dash of homoeroticism and even (whether deliberate or not) some humor. Well before The Cure’s “Killing an Arab” appears cheekily over the end credits, there is undeniable comedy in the notion that Meursault’s execution would remove the one part of his body he seems to care about the least.
The Stranger Not rated. In French and Arabic, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 2 minutes. In theaters.
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