The Stranger

Algiers. Meursault works in an office. His mother has died in the home and he goes to the funeral; he does not cry. The next day he goes to the sea, meets a woman and they go to the cinema. There is trouble with his neighbour Raymond; the man beat a woman and her brothers are after him. One day they meet on the beach. The sun is very hot. Meursault fires. In court nobody discusses the killing; everyone asks why he did not cry at his mother's funeral. What is being tried is not the act but the character. Luchino Visconti directs. Marcello Mastroianni plays Meursault and Anna Karina plays Marie; Bernard Blier and Georges Wilson are in the cast. It is an Italian, French and Algerian co-production, made in 1967. The source is Albert Camus's novel. The adaptation keeps very close to the book; the dialogue and the order of events are largely preserved. Part of it was shot in Algeria. Visconti did not come to the project willingly and later said he was not satisfied with the result. The film was out of circulation for many years; rights problems kept its screenings limited. The matter it treats is not fitting society being counted a crime; the courtroom section shows that plainly. The narrative does not use an inner voice, and the narrating voice that is the novel's greatest strength is missing. Its limit is method; the fidelity flattens the narrative and the inside of the character is not visible. Who it is for: viewers who like literary adaptations and Visconti's cinema. Who it is not for: it is distant, cold, and the ending heavy.