Les Créatures (1966) - film review

After a road accident, a writer, Edgar, and his wife, Mylène, take up residence on an island off the coast of France to recuperate.  Edgar soon recovers from his injuries and begins writing his next novel, seeking inspiration from the local people.  His wife, however, has lost her voice and can only communicate through written notes.  The islanders grow suspicious of the reclusive couple, and their unease soon turns into aggression.  Edgar is equally anxious about his neighbours, particularly a solitary widower, Ducasse, who has taken charge of a large consignment of crates.  What secret project is Ducasse engaged on – and can it explain the strange behaviour of the islanders...?

Les Créatures is the most intriguing work – certainly one of the most provocative – from Agnès Varda, one of France’s leading women filmmakers.  The style of the film – in particular its mélange of genres (comedy, thriller, fantasy and eroticism) – has much in common with that of Varda’s New Wave contemporaries, notably Jean-Luc Godard, yet the film also has a distinctly feminine edge to it that sets it apart from other defining works of the nouvelle vague.  The film begins almost as a parody of the psychological drama, with the kind of discordantly eerie music that has become the trademark of another of Varda’s contemporaries, Claude Chabrol.  Then, about halfway through, the film veers off in a totally unexpected direction and becomes unimaginably bizarre, yet compellingly so.  It is funny, chilling and baffling, allowing a myriad of interpretations whilst cheekily exploring some serious philosophical issues, such as the question of free will.  You could almost swear that the whole thing had been concocted by Roman Polanski and Jean-Paul Sartre as a private joke.

Despite its star billing – the inspired pairing of Catherine Deneuve and Michel Piccoli being one of the film’s main selling points – Les Créatures was poorly received when it was first released in 1966.  The reaction of the critics to the film was hostile and effectively slammed the brakes on Varda’s film making career for a while.  Undeterred, Varda went on to make some significant films in the following decades and she would ultimately – and deservedly – regain her reputation as a serious auteur film maker.

Paradoxically, what most make Les Créatures so original and intriguing are the very things which would put off many spectators.  The disjointed editing, where real life is inter-cut with a bizarre fantasy chess game; the grotesque caricatures who behave more like animated puppets than creatures with a mind and soul of their own; and the seemingly interminable cinematic metaphors, most of which appear to have no bearing whatsoever on the central narrative.  This is a truly puzzling film, yet one which an open-minded and indulgent film enthusiast cannot help but find strangely appealing and, thanks to its striking iconography, hauntingly memorable...

© James Travers 2011

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