EXCLUSIVE: Music Box Films has acquired U.S. rights to François Ozon’s adaptation of Albert Camus’ cult classic novel The Stranger (L’Étranger) following its buzzy world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
Benjamin Voisin, who previously worked with Ozon on Summer of 85, stars as protagonist Meursault, the Algeria-set novella’s French expat protagonist who senselessly kills a local man on a beach. Rebecca Marder (The Crime Is Mine) plays his lover Marie Cardona.
They are joined in the cast by Pierre Lotin (The Marching Band), Denis Lavant (Holy Motors) and Swann Arlaud (Anatomy of a Fall).
The official synopsis reads: “Algiers, 1938. Meursault, a quiet and unassuming employee in his early thirties, attends his mother’s funeral without shedding a tear. The next day, he begins a casual affair with Marie, a work colleague. He quickly slips back into his usual routine. However, his daily life is soon about to be disrupted by his neighbor, Raymond Sintès, who draws Meursault into his shady dealings, until one blisteringly hot day, a tragic event occurs on a beach.”
The film is lead produced by Ozon’s production company FOZ and Gaumont with France 2 Cinéma, Macassar Productions and Scope Pictures. Gaumont is handling international sales as well as the film’s French release on October 29.
Chicago-based Music Box Films has released a number of Ozon’s films in the U.S. including The Crime is Mine, Summer of 85, Potiche and Frantz.
“We have worked with François many times over the years, but we were astonished by the vitality and confidence he brought to this adaptation. We’ve seen him spin screenplays from theatrical comedies of the 1930s and YA novels of the ’80s, but to watch him apply his talent and taste to translating Albert Camus’s canonical classic of French literature to cinema is a whole other thing,” said the company.
“It’s simultaneously a stirringly faithful adaptation of Camus’s novel and a thoroughly intelligent annotation of it, teasing out nuances of race and sexuality that were always present in the text, but awaiting an interpreter of Ozon’s stature. The Stranger is also a visually resplendent adaptation, with luminous black-and-white images that will linger with audiences and Academy voters long after the film has ended.”
The sale of the film was negotiated by Brian Andreotti of Music Box Films and Alexis Cassanet of Gaumont.
“After Lost Illusions, we are thrilled to work once again with our close partner Music Box on this beautiful and elegant adaptation of Albert Camus’s classic novel, brilliantly performed by Benjamin Voisin and Rebecca Marder,” said aid Alexis Cassanet, EVP International Distribution and Co-productions of Gaumont.
Music Box Films is independently owned and operated by the Southport Music Box Corporation, which also owns and operates the Music Box Theatre, Chicago’s premier venue for independent and foreign films.
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