Directed by Agnès Varda • 1966 • France
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli, Eva Dahlbeck
One of Agnès Varda least-seen films is also one of her most fascinating: an eccentrically imaginative science-fiction fantasia that touches on human nature, free will, and the creative process. Working with major stars for the first time on a feature film, Varda casts Michel Piccoli as a writer and Catherine Deneuve as his silent wife, a couple who relocate to the island of Noirmoutier (a longtime second home for Varda and her husband, Jacques Demy) where strange goings-on hint at a sinister force controlling the minds and actions of the residents. Slipping between “reality” and fiction, genre spectacle and avant-garde experimentation, LES CRÉATURES (“The Creatures”) is a beguiling, endlessly inventive exploration of the mysterious alchemy that transforms life into art.
Up Next in Part 1: The Films
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Elsa la rose
Directed by Agnès Varda • 1966 • France
Starring Louis Aragon, Elsa Triolet, Michel PiccoliOstensibly a profile of the legendary surrealist poet Louis Aragon, this short documentary instead focuses on his wife, Elsa Triolet, a Prix Goncourt–awarded writer in her own right who nevertheless remai...
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Uncle Yanco
Directed by Agnès Varda • 1968 • France
In her effervescent first California film, Agnès Varda delves into her own family history. The short documentary UNCLE YANCO features Varda tracking down a Greek emigrant relative she’s never met, discovering an artist and kindred soul leading a bohemian l...
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Lions Love (. . . and Lies)
Directed by Agnès Varda • 1969 • United States
Starring Viva, Shirley Clarke, James Rado, Gerome RagniAgnès Varda brings New York counterculture to Los Angeles. In a rented house in the sun-soaked Hollywood Hills, a woman and two men, Viva, of Warhol Factory fame, and James Rado and Gerome R...
