Les Créatures The Creatures (1966) Agnès Varda, Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli, Eva Dahlbeck, Drama, Fantasy

Michel Legrand was one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. After showing great promise as a jazz arranger — working notably with Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Bill Evans — he turned his hand to the French “chanson” genre and composed for Boris Vian and Henri Salvador, Jacques Brel or Maurice Chevalier. He then became probably the most famous composer of melodies for France’s Nouvelle Vague filmmakers — Agnès Varda, Jacques Demy, Jean-Luc Godard —, but it was only the beginning, for he went on to be one of the most illustrious film composers in the world. This 10CD set contains his works during that first great period, devoted to all the music released under his name. Patrick FRÉMEAUX

Michel Legrand was one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. After showing great promise as a jazz arranger — working notably with Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Bill Evans — he turned his hand to the French “chanson” genre and composed for Boris Vian and Henri Salvador, Jacques Brel or Maurice Chevalier. He then became probably the most famous composer of melodies for France’s Nouvelle Vague filmmakers — Agnès Varda, Jacques Demy, Jean-Luc Godard —, but it was only the beginning, for he went on to be one of the most illustrious film composers in the world. This 10CD set contains his works during that first great period, devoted to all the music released under his name. Patrick FRÉMEAUX

The legendary French filmmaker Agnès Varda, whose remarkable career began in the 1950s and has continued into the twenty-first century, produced some of her most provocative works in the United States. After temporarily relocating to California in the late sixties with her husband, Jacques Demy, Varda, inspired by the politics, youth culture, and sunshine of the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, created three works that use documentary and fiction in various ways. She returned a decade later, and made two other fascinating portraits of outsiderness. Her five revealing, entertaining California films, encompassing shorts and features, are collected in this set, which demonstrates that Varda was as deft an artist in unfamiliar terrain as she was on her own turf.

Fils de compositeur, le petit Michel est presque né avec les touches de piano collées à ses doigts. Arrangeur pour les bonnes œuvres de son paternel, Michel Legrand connaîtra son envolée dans les années 60 et 70 en composant les musiques des films des cinéastes de la Nouvelle Vague, dont les figures emblématiques que sont Jean-Luc Godard et Agnès Varda.