The Stranger

AroView: An impeccable black-and-white adaptation of Albert Camus’ existential crime novella set in Algiers of 1938.

In the true spirit of the source, it’s a quietly riveting provocation from director Francois Ozon, reflected in the performance of Benjamin Voisin, who looks every bit the 60’s movie star as Meursault, the young Frenchman whose apparent moral indifference leads to tragedy.

Beyond the complex character study lies a tacit indictment of colonialism in a country that became independent in 1962 after the Algerian War, brilliantly dramatized in “The Battle of Algiers” (1962). The novel was also the inspiration for The Cure song, ‘Killing an Arab’.

“The most crucial thing that Ozon’s film gets right are the moral, indeed philosophical considerations that build its central character.” ~Zhuo-Ning Su, The Film Stage

“One of Ozon’s richest and most satisfying works in years — that rarest of literary adaptations, one that honors a foundational text precisely by finding something new to say.” ~Ben Croll, TheWrap

“Camus’ formidable antihero may be lost to his own demons, as well as to the demons of colonialism, but Ozon boldly suggests that the memory of his Algerian victim may live on as a harbinger of what’s to come…” ~Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter