Dir. Agnès Varda, 1966, 92 min
With Michel Piccoli, Catherine Deneuve, Lucien Bodard
In French with English subtitles

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, 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 residents.

Slipping between reality and fiction, genre spectacle and avant-garde experimentation, Les Créatures is a beguiling, endlessly inventive exploration of the mysterious alchemy that transforms life into art.

“Les Créatures is as imaginative as it is playful, as fanciful as it is frank, as intimately personal as it is wide-ranging.” – The New Yorker