THE STRANGER Trailer: François Ozon’s Take on Albert Camus’ Classic Novel Arrives in April
Known for his jaw-dropping and often steamy thrillers, French auteur François Ozon is back with an ambitious adaptation of a literary masterpiece. The Stranger, adapted by Ozon from Albert Camus’ 1942 novella, received plenty of acclaim following its world premiere at last year’s Venice Film Festival. Shot in crisp black-and-white, it stars Benjamin Voisin as an indifferent Frenchman caught up in passion and murder in French Algiers. The film also stars Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin (in a César-winning performance), Denis Lavant, and Swann Arlaud.
The thriller will have its New York premiere this week at Film at Lincoln Center’s Rendezvous with French Cinema. Music Box Films will release it in NYC on Friday, April 3, before expanding nationwide on Friday, April 10.
As the official synopsis reads:
Meursault (Benjamin Voisin) works as a clerk at an office in Algiers during the French colonial occupation. A modest man who keeps to himself, Meursault finds his routine upended by the sudden death of his mother. At her funeral, he faces scrutiny from all corners for his failure to perform his grief. Meursault’s reputation for otherworldly detachment carries over to all aspects of his life, from his tentative romance with Marie (Rebecca Marder) to his indifference to professional advancement. As Meursault gets swept up in a cycle of escalating reprisals among his neighbors, tensions come to a head when he murders an Arab man on the beach. A Frenchman may offer many defenses for shooting an Arab in Algeria, but Meursault’s refusal of excuse or remorse shakes colonial society to its core. Photographed in sterling, sensuous black-and-white, François Ozon’s new take on Albert Camus’s classic novel of existentialist ennui is a landmark of adaptation, simultaneously faithful to the text and dedicated to discovering fresh perspectives in the margins.
Watch the trailer below.
