Knowing the book, the first thing I wondered, before even watching the film, was whether they would rely on some form of voice-over to better convey the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings.
I expected they would, both because otherwise Meursault would be almost completely silent throughout, and because the final part of the story would have been impossible to handle without it.
Watching the film, though, I saw that the protagonist is in fact left almost entirely silent in nearly every scene, and that the voice-over appears only in the moment I had in mind, and in just one other scene, right after the murder.
This second moment is also cathartic, although it is already anticipated from the very beginning, since—unlike in the novel—the murder is mentioned from the first moment. A choice that, in my opinion, undermines the experience for someone approaching the story for the first time, and that I can only justify if I assume the director took for granted that the audience already knew it, given that structuring the narrative across two different timeframes ultimately serves no real purpose.
Overall, the story is extremely faithful to the book, almost a literal adaptation in terms of events. But the book is not really a story of events; it’s a story of sensations, thoughts, observations, and everything that happens within Meursault’s inner life. His perspective is what makes the novel so powerful and, at the same time, what makes the film “impossible.”
I appreciate the choice of black and white because it helps immerse you in the period; I don’t appreciate it if the intent was to reinforce emotional detachment or something along those lines, although I suspect that was precisely the aim.
It was a difficult challenge to adapt this story, and I think the result is still among the best that could have been achieved.
Knowing the book, the first thing I wondered, before even watching the film, was whether they would rely on some form of voice-over to better convey the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings.
I expected they would, both because otherwise Meursault would be almost completely silent throughout, and because the final part of the story would have been impossible to handle without it.
Watching the film, though, I saw that the protagonist is in fact left almost entirely silent in nearly every scene, and that the voice-over appears only in the moment I had in mind, and in just one other scene, right after the murder.
This second moment is also cathartic, although it is already anticipated from the very beginning, since—unlike in the novel—the murder is mentioned from the first moment. A choice that, in my opinion, undermines the experience for someone approaching the story for the first time, and that I can only justify if I assume the director took for granted that the audience already knew it, given that structuring the narrative across two different timeframes ultimately serves no real purpose.
Overall, the story is extremely faithful to the book, almost a literal adaptation in terms of events. But the book is not really a story of events; it’s a story of sensations, thoughts, observations, and everything that happens within Meursault’s inner life. His perspective is what makes the novel so powerful and, at the same time, what makes the film “impossible.”
I appreciate the choice of black and white because it helps immerse you in the period; I don’t appreciate it if the intent was to reinforce emotional detachment or something along those lines, although I suspect that was precisely the aim.
It was a difficult challenge to adapt this story, and I think the result is still among the best that could have been achieved.
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