with my shaky understanding of existentialism, some of this film went over my head. the first half of the film moves along like your typical art film, episodic and ambiguous encounters of the everyday kind. we have Meursault swimming, talking with his bosses, talking to a street person about his missing scarred dog. but something isn't quite right about him. he's just very aloof and he's non-committal about everything. he tells his girlfriend that he doesn't care if he marries her or not, doesn't even care to ask himself if he loved her. she's loyal, pretty and typical and played by the lovely anna karina. he tells his boss that he rather not take a promotion that's been offered to him because he likes where he lives and hardly saw a promotion as step up from his current life. in fact, it seems that nothing is a step up for this guy, in his odd way of thinking, there's a brutal equality to everything. losing a job and getting a promotion would practically be the same thing to him, since life has no meaning for him, so such lofty goals are not his priority. nothing is his priority. he acts normal enough just to get by, he inquires about the homeless man and his lost dog and why he won't go to a pound to find him, but in reality, Meursault probably doesn't give a care about the dog. just asks to look normal and inquisitive, and he does a good enough of a job doing it. if there is one phrase to describe Meursault, it would be that the man is an island onto himself. complete outsider in every sense of the word. it's like apples and oranges with you compare him to the rest of society.
(spoilers here)
after he kills someone on a beach and is tried for murder, all his character witnesses basically don't know what to make of him. they interact with him, but they too sense something not quite right with him. they don't hate him, but they can't seem to defend his character because he perplexes them, only his girlfriend comes to his defense.
the first part of the film is about Meursault interacting in real life, observing how Meursault fits in society. after the murder, society confronts Meursault and his existentialist philosophy about life in a murder trial. only, it feels like a show trial for the religious gossip-seekers. the trial is about establishing character and religious beliefs as indicator of guilt, not evidence. this man is not given a fair trial. you can think of it this way, an existentialist outsider vs. the religious god-fearing public and judicial system that use his character and his fear of god as an indicator of his guilt.
he hardly bothers to defend himself, and when convicted and faced with death, his fear and uncertainty about death reveals our existentialist hero to be a psychopath has he carefully reasons how death works in his godless philosophy with a chaplain. through out the film, he has no sense of morality, but no real sense of evil either. what is left is a general fear, angst and hopelessness that morphs itself into a frightening declaration of abandonment and nihilism when faced with death. his last words are chilling: "let as many people see me die. let them have hate for me in their eyes."
(spoilers here)
after he kills someone on a beach and is tried for murder, all his character witnesses basically don't know what to make of him. they interact with him, but they too sense something not quite right with him. they don't hate him, but they can't seem to defend his character because he perplexes them, only his girlfriend comes to his defense.
the first part of the film is about Meursault interacting in real life, observing how Meursault fits in society. after the murder, society confronts Meursault and his existentialist philosophy about life in a murder trial. only, it feels like a show trial for the religious gossip-seekers. the trial is about establishing character and religious beliefs as indicator of guilt, not evidence. this man is not given a fair trial. you can think of it this way, an existentialist outsider vs. the religious god-fearing public and judicial system that use his character and his fear of god as an indicator of his guilt.
he hardly bothers to defend himself, and when convicted and faced with death, his fear and uncertainty about death reveals our existentialist hero to be a psychopath has he carefully reasons how death works in his godless philosophy with a chaplain. through out the film, he has no sense of morality, but no real sense of evil either. what is left is a general fear, angst and hopelessness that morphs itself into a frightening declaration of abandonment and nihilism when faced with death. his last words are chilling: "let as many people see me die. let them have hate for me in their eyes."