I've just finished watching Luchino Visconti's 1967 adaptation of Albert Camus novel The Stranger (aka The Outsider) and I want to share my thoughts. I'll start by saying that it's been a few years since I read the book but a review of the film I skimmed before watching it and my own surprisingly thorough recollection indicates that Visconti's film is a rather close adaptation.<br /><br />The central premise of The Stranger is that Mersault, a normal man, commits a crime accidentally and is punished ostensibly for that crime but actually for his inability to fit in with the absurd society that he is a part of. This society is apparently bent on upholding traditions with no regard for the differences in individuals: Meursault is often emotionless when society expects him to be most emotional.<br /><br />At the beginning of the film Meursault goes to his mother's funeral and appears rather stoic. We learn later that he sees death as a natural part of life; just as she has lived she must die. For Meursault mourning his mother's death would be like mourning a sunrise. Meursault and his mother's relationship had actually ended on good terms when she was alive and there was no reason for him to heap honors on her when she could no longer benefit from them. Unlike most people, Meursault isn't willing to show off emotionally for others.<br /><br />Next we see Meursault having a relationship with an attractive woman about his own age. Society expects these two to fall in love and get married; this is something that the woman never thinks twice about. Our hero just doesn't see the point, however: he's happy enough to enjoy this woman's company but he doesn't feel like committing himself to her for the rest of his life. It's logical: why should he change things when they are going well already? Once again he isn't willing to pretend in order to conform to society's expectations.<br /><br />The central event in the film is the a murder committed by Meursault. Due to his friend's indiscretion with a young woman Meursault is drawn into a fight with that woman's brother and some other men. One of the men has a knife and Meursault's friend produces a gun: fearing a hasty murder he takes the gun away from the man and sticks it into his pocket. Later, by chance, he runs into the knife wielding man again: he thinks he sees the knife (its ambiguous whether it's actually there or just some other object that reflects the sun) and shoots the man several times.<br /><br />At his trial Meursault once again refuses to conform to expectations: he doesn't care what the judge or jury thinks of him. The trial is utterly absurd; more is said about his lack of emotion at his mother's funeral than his actual crime. Essentially, he is on trial for being a noncomformist.<br /><br />In prison we see that he doesn't regret what he's done though he may regret the absurd world he lives in. In fact he gets most emotional when he runs across his opposite: a man who is so caught up in conformity that he is little more than a shadow of a man. That man is of course a priest and it's obvious that the story is meant to show contempt for this non thinker. The utter absurdity of a man who shuns logic preaching to a logical man is almost too much for both of them but it's the priest who must retreat from the cell.<br /><br />The Stranger successfully portrays the difficulty a logical, self aware man has living in an absurd conformist society thus encapsulating Camus' Existentialist philosophy.<br /><br />Visconti's film is a bit hard to separate from the source; the film has some brilliant ideas but they're just copied over. Still, I think even copying these ideas successfully into a new medium is pretty impressive. The film also does a really excellent job with lighting. Someone could surely write a nice essay about the lighting in this film but I won't bore you further with an attempt to do so, I know this is a bit long. Still, this was my first Visconti and I was pretty impressed. I find it a bit inexplicable that many people dislike this and don't think it expresses the novel's ideas very well.