ALOISE (1975)

One of a handful of female outsider artists to earn praise from the early exponents of art brut, Aloïse Corbaz—born in modest circumstances in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1886; institutionalized as a schizophrenic in 1918; and kept under psychiatric observation until her death in 1964—is portrayed here by two of the premiere European actresses of their respective generations: Isabelle Huppert, who plays Corbaz as a ruminative, searching young woman, and Delphine Seyrig, astonishingly committed as the elder artist.

Produced by Paul Vecchiali, de Kermadec’s sophomore feature, newly restored by Cinémathèque Française, is an ideal introduction to an unjustly forgotten giant of post–New Wave French cinema, who in the same year of its release would serve as one of the producers on Seyrig and Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce.

Restored in 4K by TF1 Studio, La Cinémathèque française and Cinémathèque suisse at Hiventy and Transperfect laboratories, from the original negatives.

• Bonus Features:
• Qui donc a rêvé? (1965) - a short film by de Kermadec inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, also starring Delphine Seyrig
• Couleurs folie (1986) - a short film by Abraham Ségal, featuring Seyrig and painter Mary Barnes
• Plus a booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Tim Palmer, and a new translation of ‘A Tribute to Liliane de Kermadec: Exceptional Destinies and Constrained Desires’ by Alexandre Moussa
• New Artwork by Tyler Rubenfeld