The Old Sorceress and the Valet + Open Mic Solitaire

The Old Sorceress and the Valet (1987)
88min
With Jenny Alpha, Robert Liensol, Jacques Martial
In French with English subtitles

Laou’s feature debut follows Eugénie (Alpha) and Armand (Liensol), an elderly couple wandering the streets of Paris. Their bickering reveals long-kept secrets about Armand’s time as a majordomo and Eugénie’s life before she was a quimboiseuse, or practitioner of black magic. The result is an often-hilarious, ultimately breathtaking panorama of a relationship, a generation of immigrants, and an ever-changing city.

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Open Mic Solitaire (1983)
18min, digital
With Serge Ubrette, Marilyne Canto
In French with English subtitles

After his brother is murdered by skinheads, a young Black man and his white girlfriend hijack a popular Franco-Caribbean radio station; live on the air, he addresses the city in an incendiary and unforgettable monologue.

OPEN MIC SOLITAIRE was restored in 2K in collaboration with Julius-Amédée Laou from the original 35mm negative by GREC (Groupe de Recherches et d'Essais Cinématographiques).