Ozon Adapts Camus' 'The Stranger' With Voisin as Meursault
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- François Ozon adapted Camus' 1942 novel "L'Étranger" as a black-and-white film starring Benjamin Voisin, 29, the first major screen version since Luchino Visconti's 1967 film, which Ozon said miscast Marcello Mastroianni as Meursault
- Ozon secured adaptation rights by convincing Camus' daughter Catherine Camus to support his plan to expand women's roles and address colonization; the novel is not yet in the public domain, and the film adds a coda showing the unnamed Arab victim's wife visiting his grave
- Voisin isolated himself during the Morocco shoot, skipping crew dinners to stay in character, and told co-star Rebecca Marder not to expect pleasantries; he earned a César nomination for the role
- Music Box Films releases "The Stranger" on Friday, April 4
- Ozon cited Sergio Leone's standoffs as the visual model for the murder scene's expanded, sensual two-shot, and dismissed repeated questions about a "queer gaze" as "a typically North American question"
Why it matters: Ozon is the first filmmaker in nearly six decades to seriously re-adapt Camus' foundational existential novel, and his choices — expanding female roles, contextualizing colonialism, adding a coda for the Arab victim — directly answer longstanding critiques of the book as colonialist, though he told Camus' estate he considers it the opposite. The Camus estate's gatekeeping means this is likely the last major adaptation before the novel enters the public domain, after which "everyone will be able to make their own version."
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