Aloïse

‘Although nominally a biographical film, Liliane de Kermadec’s Aloïse from 1975 might perhaps be more aptly regarded as an astronomical event (…). Aloïse is a study of two supernovae: Isabelle Huppert, then in the midst of her meteoric rise, and Delphine Seyrig in her ‘annus mirabilis’ at the height of her career (…). The woman portrayed by these celebrated actresses – Huppert as the young Aloïse, Seyrig from her adult years until her death – is the Swiss outsider artist Aloïse Corbaz, born in Lausanne in 1886. She was admitted to a psychiatric institution in 1918, where she spent the rest of her life. The art she created there – colourful drawings of voluptuous women, in coloured pencil and graphite on wrapping paper – was to establish her as one of the most important exponents of Art Brut (…). Aloïse is a powerful film that follows its protagonist through fragmentary vignettes from childhood to death (…) and attributes her mental breakdown to the stifling, marginalising rules and norms of a rigid society.” (Melissa Anderson, 4Columns, 15 May 2026)