François Ozon's 'The Stranger' (2025)

Trailer.

Ozon's not exactly Visconti, but I'm glad to see him working with Benjamin Voisin again after Summer of '85.

Eh, I'd stick to the book. I loved the book but as a movie I think it would be boring and not translate well.

Someone ought to introduce Benji to Johnny Bailey, they'd make a beautiful couple.

[quote] Someone clearly watched Ripley last year and got inspired.

I'm confused by your post. "L' Étranger" (in English: The Stranger) by Albert Camus , the source material of this adaptation, dates from 1942, thirteen years before Patricia Highsmith published "The Talented Mr. Ripley."

Or do you mean Ozon's adaptation of the Camus novel is particularly like the 2024 Netflix adaptation of Highsmith's novel "Ripley"? If that is so, how?

Your sentence was quite elliptical, whether you meant it to be or not. I'm not trying to be an asshole: I'm just confused by your posting.

Is there HOMOSEX with accents in the movie?

Do they show penis?

R5, he's obviously referring to Alien. Duh!

The unsuccessful Visconti version released in 1967 is available on Youtube in a horrid "4K" upscaled version that looks not unlike those colorized Ed Wood movies:

r5 I was clearly addressing the cinematography, we obviously all know about the source material. There was no need for this to be in black and white, I just took it as him getting inspired by Zaillian. Just like how he got inspired by CMBYN and created Summer of '85 as a result.

Also, there was nothing elliptical about my sentence and you are, in fact, being rude.

r3 The book made my depression so much worse when I had to read it as a teenager, almost made me want to kill myself. Back to back with Crime and Punishment too, like a double whammy. So I hated it for about two decades, but then I listened to a podcast about its philosophical ideas a couple of months ago and now I appreciate it so much more. I perceived it as an uncomfortable mirror to those of us that don't fit in back when all I wanted was to fit in, but now I find it liberating to the extreme.

[quote] [R5] I was clearly addressing the cinematography, we obviously all know about the source material.

No you weren't "clearly addressing" it at all.

Your single sentence was elliptical and not clear at all.

R10 I would have hated it as a teen. But I found the main character just kind of fascinating and challenging. You see little tiny glimmers of potential of humanity or empathy or even love but ultimately he just cant make the connection.

R11, not OP here, but he clearly does say “Francois Ozon’s The Stranger” not Camus. So it would be understood that anything following would be referencing Ozon’s version. It’s quite clear, including the still from the movie.

Oh - and he says WATCHED Ripley last year, not READ Ripley. So I do not know where in the world R11 you could have possibly have gotten the idea that the OP was referring to Camus anachronistically reading Highsmith’s Ripley in 1942. Now that’s just Strange.

I read L'Etranger in a high school French class, and loved it. That encouraged me to then read The Fall and The Plague "for fun". We also read Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Ionescu for AP French, which led me down that treacherous path to Heidegger and Nietzsche.

While some turned to drugs and rock & roll to deal with teenage angst, I turned to European Existentialism.

Anna Karina's performance in Visconti's version is right down there with the worst of Ali McGraw and Sean Young.

R8 Whatever. Very hot Algerian trade in that movie. And the mature Italian men aren't chopped liver, either.

Ha R15! J’ai l’impression que, pour certains garçons américains qui apprennent le français au high school, le parcours intellectuel se ressemble un peu qu'on découvre Les souffrances du jeune Werther à peu près en même temps que L’Étranger de Camus. Et voilà, on se sent poétique, cultivé, voire existentialiste selon l’humeur du jour. Puis un beau jour arrivent les philosophes allemands, le rad bad boy Nietzsche et l’éternel neinsager Heidegger en tête, pour nous rappeler que nous ne sommes pas des génies. Nous les Tommys et Jimmys, trop “terre-à-terre” pour pénétrer ce labyrinthe métaphysique teutonique. Restons-en au français, les gars, pour le plaisir.

Whatever.

Once you realize The Stranger is about a two-bit psychopath, all the literary glamour evaporates.

It's an attempt to be more faithful to the novel's period than Visconti's version, but it looks much too aestheticized. The novel stinks of sweat and grime and sewage and garlic. Meursault isn't a pretty boy, either.

I seem to recall that Camus keeps Meursault featureless - no description of height, hair color, facial features, or overall appearance.

Meursault was blowing Raymond and fucked l'Arabe.

Is there the Ozon trademark where a gay guy has sex with a woman and finds it so much more meaningful and beautiful than anything else?

[quote] Someone clearly watched Ripley last year and got inspired.

Because François fucking Ozon discovered existential dread in an Andrew Scott Netflix series. 🥴

How many flax fields were massacred to make this movie!

R25, I would say yes to that. Did you see the series? I can tell from OP’s pic he was heavily inspired visually.

r25, Steven Zaillian's Ripley starring Andrew Scott delves much deeper into themes of existential dread such as isolation and the struggle to find personal meaning more than the movie ever did. It is very well done and Scott is rather magnificent in his portrayal of Ripley. If you haven't seen it, it is definitely worth the watch with a very satisfying ending featuring John Malkovich. And it is shot in black and white which really drive home the themes of the novel.

The trailer is very Bruce Weber.

There can only be one B&W art film every other year. The poster demands it!

Ripley was 2024.