Nothing like a little languor and ennui — and in crisp black-and-white — on the Algerian coast to usher out winter and into spring.
Master French filmmaker François Ozon, who rivals Rainer Werner Fassbinder in terms of being prolific, has applied his sensual cinematic touch to remakes and adaptations before — whether building the erotic thriller “Swimming Pool” out of “La Piscine,” or “Peter von Kant” out of Fassbinder’s masterpiece of lesbian hauteur, “Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.”
Most recently, Ozon adapted Albert Camus’ famed existentialist novel “The Stranger” from 1942, following the fatalistic French settler Meursault, who murders an Algerian man and feels nothing afterward. Ozon reunites with rising “Summer of 85” breakout Benjamin Voisin, who earned a Best Actor nomination at the César Awards for this role.
“The Stranger,” which cranks up the heat and scintillating summer sensuality previously not awakened in Camus’ text, premiered in competition at the 2025 Venice Film Festival. It’s now opening on April 3 from Music Box Films, and IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer below.
More on “The Stranger” courtesy of Music Box Films: “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.”
“The Stranger” is about to open Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film at Lincoln Center in New York on March 5. According to The Guardian, Camus’ daughter Catherine gave her stamp of approval to the film overall; Camus died in a car crash in 1960. The film’s trailer is below.
Music Box Films releases “The Stranger” in select theaters Friday, April 3.
