“The Stranger” by François Ozon, daring and sensual adaptation of Camus’ novel

This week, Matteu Maestracci discusses the films “The Stranger” by François Ozon and “The Richest Woman in the World” by Thierry Klifa.

In The strangerfor those who have not followed, we remind you that “Maman” died, today or perhaps yesterday, we still don’t know, and that her son Meursault, protagonist of this story, will soon be judged for having I quote “killed an Arab”.

We are in Algiers at the end of the 1930s, in the company of this modest employee of the French colonial power, played by Benjamin Voisin. A taciturn and unsympathetic character, who feels no emotion, but begins a carnal affair with Marie Cardona, played by Rebecca Marder.

We must recognize the panache, even a certain courage, in François Ozon for tackling this monument of French literature, deemed unadaptable and with which even a certain Visconti did not really know what to do with in 1967.

With an impeccable cast completed by Pierre Lottin, Denis Lavant, Swann Arlaud and Hajar Bouzaouit, we love The stranger thanks to its changes of pace or its echoes with our societies today, but also the very beautiful work on the photography and the light in the settings of Tangier, in Morocco.

Isabelle Huppert gives it her all, here, in the role of Liliane Betten… sorry, Marianne Farrère, billionaire boss of a large cosmetics group. She will find herself under the influence of a photographer who will, of course, give her a second youth, but also manipulate her, against a backdrop of intra-family power wars or the resurgence of an anti-Semitic past.

It is indeed the Bettencourt affair which is mentioned here. But the names have been changed, so that the fiction – tells us the director Thierry Klifa – offers more freedoms, also thanks to the tools of comedy.

Funny, rhythmic, with a je ne sais quoi of franchouillard boulevardier thanks to spicy dialogues, and an irresistible Huppert/Lafitte duo, without forgetting the performances of Marina Foïs or Raphaël Personnaz, The richest woman in the world is another great success.