Albert Camus' classic existential novel 'The Stranger' receives a sleek, stunning cinematic update

François Ozon's black-and-white film adaptation of Albert Camus' 'The Stranger' stars Benjamin Voisin as Meursault, an emotionally detached clerk in 1930s Algiers who commits a motiveless murder. The film expands the novel's setting, depicting the French colonial community and giving names to Arab characters, while exploring colonial disregard and Meursault's indifference.

François Ozon's film adaptation of Albert Camus' classic existential novel 'The Stranger' has opened in theaters. The black-and-white film stars Benjamin Voisin as Meursault, an emotionally detached clerk in late 1930s Algiers who commits a seemingly motiveless murder. The adaptation expands the novel's setting, vividly depicting the French colonial community (the 'pieds-noirs') and the indigenous Arab population. The trial scene explores how Meursault's indifference to his mother's death is treated as a greater crime than taking the life of an Arab man. Unlike the novel, the Arab characters are given names, and the script is critical of the colonial disregard for them. The review notes that the film's cinematography and the actors' good looks sometimes make scenes resemble perfume commercials, but overall calls the adaptation engrossing and effective.