Dir. François Ozon, 2025
Tuesday, November 3rd @ 7:00 pm — Campus Theatre
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. This reputation for otherworldly detachment follows Meursault back to Algiers, where his tentative romance with Marie (Rebecca Marder) and his indifference to professional advancement frustrate those around him. 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.
This showing is part of the Albertine Cinémathèque at Bucknell University. For background and other films in the series, check here.