"The French director Francois Ozon has attempted to rise to the challenge with a black-and-white adaptation of the 1942 novel that has revived the polemic over what Camus said or failed to say about French Algeria, which ended in 1962 after a war of independence. Ozon's L'Etranger will be released in the UK next year and has received mixed reviews. The film is long, atmospheric and as ponderous as the taciturn antihero Meursault,"
"His failure to show emotion after his mother's death and cold detachment after he kills an Arab on a beach sees him condemned to death by decapitation. In 1967, the Italian director Luchino Visconti made the first film of the novel, starring Marcello Mastroianni, but it was viewed as a failure. Visconti had wanted Alain Delon in the role but was reportedly overruled by the film studio."
"Nedjib Sidi Moussa, a political scientist, teacher and author of several books on Algeria, said the new film succeeded in conveying the absurdity of Camus's first novel. Ozon was faithful to the text in that he accurately conveyed what L'Etranger is: a novel of the absurd. Meursault is not condemned to death for killing an Arab. Colonial justice would not condemn a European to death for killing an indigenous person."
L'Etranger remains widely read and contested more than eighty years after publication. Few attempts have been made to adapt the novel because of its portrayal of France's colonisation of Algeria. Francois Ozon produced a black-and-white film that has reignited debate about the novel's stance on French Algeria. The film is long, atmospheric and intentionally ponderous; Meursault, a taciturn French settler, shows indifference after his mother's death and after killing an Arab, resulting in his condemnation. A 1967 adaptation by Luchino Visconti was viewed as a failure. Some observers say Ozon faithfully conveys the novel's absurdity and the idea that Meursault is condemned for indifference rather than the killing.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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