“Existentialism is a philosophical theory or approach that emphases the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through the acts of the will.”
Existentialism defined by Oxford Reference
The Stranger, by Albert Camus, is a story of an ordinary man. This movie raises the question about justice, morality, and above all meaningful existence of human beings. There is a senseless murder on the Algerian beach.
In the Cast of the movie, there is Marcello Mastroianni as the protagonist of the movie named as Meursault. He is utterly isolated from everything and everyone around him. And this alienation results in sudden inexplicable bursts of violence, culminating in murder. Then there is Anne Karina playing a role as Marie Cardona. Then there is Bernard Biler as the defense counsel. Georges Wilson as the examining magistrate, Bruno Cremer as Priest, Piere Bertin as the judge, Georges Geret as the Raymond.
The Setting of the movie is Algiers, Algerian beach. So far as the starting and ending of the movie are concerned we can say that the setting of the movie is perfect because the climax of the movie just happened on the beach. The music of the movie makes us mere tensed, it shows the hollowness of the people. The sound effects used in the movie are playing a vital role in narrating the inner condition of the characters.
The techniques used in the movie are classic for example there are techniques of a long shot, zoom, closeup, fade, dissolve, and Sharpe focus. The colors in the film used are both white and black. And these colors are important as far as the themes of the movie are concerned. If we analyze the plot of the movie, there are many turning points in the characters. The opening and closing scenes are really very important. There are flashbacks, dreams, not the sequence of the events are not much mattered in the movie.
The narrator of the movie is the main hero Meursault, the movie starts with him reading a telegram having news about the death of his mother. He was not shocked by the news as his mother was too old. At the funeral, Meursault didn’t weep rather he was shown upset due to the hot weather. This act on his part shows the lack of morality having no emotions even for his dead mother no tears shed down from his eyes. In the hospital he met with an old lady who used to cry all day as she says, she lost his old mother companion she is totally alone now.so this condition of the lady makes us ponder upon the alienated condition of the people. It seems the forces of nature and man conspires to work upon Meursault in a manner that cause a sudden outburst of violence that shatters his world. The emptiness of the Meursault is clear from the act right after his mother’s death, he met with beautiful Marie during his meeting with Marie he does not show a single sign of grief on his face, though our thoughts shocked to hear his words when he offers Marie to watch a movie. It shows the hollowness of the man and the exile of emotions from the state of the heart.
Then there is shown the idleness of the man on the day of Sunday we find him all the day sitting on the Taurus having a cigar in his lips and watching people busy in their work, the way he sits idly remind us of the two tramps of The Waiting For Godot, half of the day passed, when night knock his door and we find him closing the window still having a cigar in his lips and saying the words” All and all nothing has been changed”.
This again reminds us of Vladimir and Estragon, in Waiting for Godot, as Albert Camus says “If nothing had any meaning, you would be right. But there is still something that has meaning.” Though we also find him searching the meaning of life as he says on the beach, the sky fills my eyes with blue and gold” So the theme of existentialism is there. The conversation between Marie and him shows the anxiety and hollowness running inside the minds of characters:
Marie: Would you marry me?
Meursault: It doesn’t matter if you like it suppose to be.
Marie: Think marriage as a serious thing.
Meursault: No, No, No.
Again In the next scene.
Marie: Do you love me?
Meursault: It doesn’t matter if you like it suppose to be.
Here again, we find the same scenario as represented in the Samuel drama.
Est: Shall we go?
Vla: No.
Est: Why?
Vla: We are waiting for Godot?
This none sensical conversation is full of meanings but these characters are using these words in a general way and leaving the responsibility of understanding the depth of their words on the audience. This shows us their pathetic condition that they are not aware of their future and don’t know what to do next. At the next moment when Meursault visited the office of the prison chaplain, there is an encounter between them, where we find him saying that he has no reason to find God, as the chaplain works to convince him, he becomes more agitated. As he says” I don’t care as it’s impossible to changes one’s life it will remain the same”.It shows he can’t take it anymore the illusion of God’s existence.
Raymond is his friend notorious in his neighborhood for beating his mistress. We can judge his character in ‘Aesthetic Existentialism’ in which a person finds his meaning of life in the pleasure which he gets from the seduction of women. Meursault himself in the web of chance events magnified by his own failure to behave as expected by the society. He comes across in the second part of the movie as a distanced being alienated from the general society seems to be cut off from the feelings it seems he does not want to show the false emotions. When the Raymond and Marie went with him on the beach trip he finds an Arab, Meursault proceeds and shoots him, the way he kills the man shows jarring empathy on his part and in his explanation he says he did it due to the intolerable heat.
This act reminds us of the agnostic Existentialism the fact that he does not believe on God and does, not remorse on the crime, when he was sent to the gallows it seems he was more punished then the crime he has done. Here is a flashback to the mother’s death, we can say that it is a trial against his character as Camus say “In our society, any man who does not weep on his mother’s funeral runs the risk of being sentenced to death”
The ending of the movie is in the form of the monologue, it seems his death was merely a choice which he made, so in order to find the meaning of life, his life ends into nothingness. Despite the character’s cold and detached nature, he was purely and simply a man exercising his right to exist.
The themes of the movie are alienation from society, lack of feelings, Camus shows us the realization of solitude with a life lived with conscious, deliberate, and realistic efforts. The hero is away from the self-indulgent existentialism, silence, indifference, absurd nature of the time are the main themes of the movie. As the closing words of the narrator shows us a league of themes behind them ”A crowd of spectators at the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate”, confirms his alienation and solitude.
