“L’Étranger”, based on Albert Camus’s 1942 novella “The Stranger”, frames the arbitrary killing of an Arab by a French colonial in Algiers as an act of existential alienation.
Meursault, a quiet and unassuming employee in his early thirties, attends his mother’s funeral without shedding a tear. The next day, he begins a casual affair with Marie, a work colleague, and quickly slips back into his usual routine. However, his daily life is soon disrupted by his neighbour, Raymond Sintès, who draws Meursault into his shady dealings — until, on one blisteringly hot day, a tragic event occurs on a beach.
Recreating 1940s Algeria in vivid, high contrast black and white cinematography, “L’Etranger” is erotic, enigmatic and brutal in equal measures, a masterful screen version of an insoluble classic.
