François Ozon adapts Camus’s L’Étranger for the big screen
French director François Ozon tackles a literary monument: L’Étranger by Albert Camus. Shooting of this long-awaited adaptation will begin in April 2025 in Morocco.
It’s news that intrigues as much as it excites: François Ozon, known for his ability to navigate between genres, is set to bring to the screen L’Étranger, Albert Camus’s masterpiece published in 1942. This novel, a cornerstone of French literature, has marked generations of readers with its stripped-down writing and its exploration of the absurd through the character of Meursault.
A major cinematographic challenge
Since 1998′s Sitcom, François Ozon has established himself as one of France’s most prolific filmmakers, with success after success in films as varied as 8 femmes, Frantz and Mon crime. Following the success of Quand vient l’automne in 2024, he is now tackling a major project with the adaptation of Camus’s first novel, a text that has already seen a film version in 1967 under the direction of Luchino Visconti.
A timeless work revisited
The story of L’Étranger follows Meursault, a man detached from social conventions and all forms of apparent emotion. From the very first sentence – “Today, Mom died. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.” – the tone is set: that of a hero indifferent to the world, whose destiny changes after a murder on an Algiers beach. Far from a simple courtroom drama, the novel explores existential solitude and the absurdity of the human condition.
A cast as yet unknown
For the moment, no information has been released on the actor who will play Meursault, nor on the rest of the cast. The only certainty is that filming will take place in Morocco, a choice no doubt aimed at recreating the Mediterranean atmosphere of 1940s Algiers.
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