Existentialist cinema is making a comeback, with François Ozon's new adaptation of Albert Camus's The Stranger and the upcoming film Sirāt set to revive the philosophy for modern audiences. Ozon's version, starring newcomer Benjamin Voisin as the antihero Meursault, has been praised for its pointed political focus on colonial power relations, a shift from the novel's original context. The film's release comes 84 years after the novel was published, raising questions about whether existentialism is back in vogue or merely a nostalgic nod to angsty youth.
Ozon's take improves on Luchino Visconti's 1967 adaptation, Lo Straniero, which was widely considered a misfire. Shot in silvery monochrome, the new film presents Meursault as a hard-edged nonconformist, almost sociopathic, contrasting with the book's more acquiescent protagonist. The film opens with a propaganda newsreel about Algiers, immediately foregrounding colonial tensions that were less explicit in Camus's original work.
Existentialism, which questioned life's purpose in a godless universe, was once central to mid-20th-century culture, championed by figures like Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir. However, its influence on cinema has been limited, with few direct adaptations of existentialist novels. Sartre's Nausea and The Roads to Freedom have never been adapted for film, and only Camus's The Plague received a feature-length treatment, in 1992. The French New Wave flirted with existentialist themes in films like The 400 Blows and Breathless, but often focused more on cinematic experimentation than raw philosophy.
In the US, film noir directors such as Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder incorporated existentialist angst into their work, and the philosophy has persisted in modern films featuring hitmen questioning life's meaning. Whether Ozon's The Stranger and Sirāt can rekindle widespread interest in existentialism remains uncertain, but they offer a timely exploration of alienation and meaning in a tech-driven age.
