Yves Saint Laurent

I have just watched Yves Saint Laurent and found it to be a visually sumptuous film which totally captures the dying days of the elite formal couture houses before bursting into the hedonism of modern global fashion brands. An excellent companion piece to L'Amour Fou (2010), giving an insight into the tempestuous but private relationship between YSL and Pierre Bergé through the pitch perfect acting of Pierre Niney (Yves) and Guillaume Gallienne (Pierre).

The film charts YSL's career from his early years at Dior in the late 1950s through to his iconic Ballet Russes collection of 1976. The world of the late 1950s is perfectly captured with elegant Dior designs, stylish models and a jazz score that matched the chic Parisian apartments the characters inhabit.

In one such apartment Yves meets Pierre Bergé, the man he will spend the rest of his life with both privately and professionally. For Pierre is the man who orchestrates the creation of YSL as a couture house. He gives Yves the confidence to "create on my own terms" and show the world his own particular view of feminine beauty and elegance.

Their relationship mirrors Giancarlo Giammetti and Valentino Garavani who together also created an iconic fashion house and sustained a personal relationship for over 50 years. Their story too is wonderfully and humorously captured in the documentary The Last Emperor (2008). However, one is left with a sense that Giancarlo and Valentino had a much more stable relationship to that of Yves and Pierre. The YSL movie captures during the 1960/70s Yves' erratic excesses with drugs and sex and Pierre's jealousy and need for control.

But this expose of their difficult relationship in no way detracts from the exquisite design throughout the movie. From the elegant, well documented interiors of Yves and Pierre's Parisian apartments, to the bohemian Moroccan lifestyle they enjoyed with the likes of Loulou de la Falaise and Karl Lagerfeld.

This film was a joy to watch with a standout performance by Pierre Niney, whose voice and mannerisms made Yves live once again.

Becoming a trend-setter in the fashion industry can be quite the challenge, but making a fashion movie with some cinematic and historical merit is the real challenge many have been willing to accept, and have failed miserably. Even though there are so many irreplaceable names within fashion with such interesting stories to tell (Dior, Arden, Versace, Ford, Varvatos, Gucci and Chanel to name a few), director Jalil Lespert chooses Yves Saint Laurent; one of the few fashion icons to have his pieces of high fashion and considerably iconic art pieces displayed in museums and prestigious art galleries around the world. Yet, with Yves Saint Laurent, we aren't quite sure if that is simply enough for a biopic of this stature.

Lacking any real panache and coming undone at the poorly constructed narrative seams, Yves Saint Laurent becomes a retro-fitted cinematic mess that, similar to many of Luarent's pieces, is more fun to look at than to wear, or in this case, follow narratively. Yves Saint Laurent depicts the tormented life of a genius, torn apart by the luxuries of high living and fame at too young an age. While Laurent could never possibly be taken away from being a visionary, his newest film by veteran French actor Jalil Lespert focuses more on its grainy, melancholic exterior than it does with coherently telling the story of one of the most revolutionary haute couture designers of the mid-1900's.

One of Lespert's greatest facilitators of telling Laurent's story is sex, and his story begins at the tender age of a twenty-one when Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent (Pierre Niney) was simply the assistant to Christian Dior. Lespert's film is a daunting task of understanding the ambiguity of silence and the mixed feelings of Laurent, who makes advances to his female friend and model Victoire Doutreleau (Charlotte Le Bon), yet exchanges undressing glares to his Algerian male gardener–this introduction of the film really throws audiences off. Thankfully, the slight glimmer of brilliance that is Lespert's film is understood fully once it is revealed that Laurent is a homosexual, and falls in love with Pierre Bergé (Guillaume Gallienne) in a seamlessly idyllic visit to a friend's Northern villa. Although Laurent's marriage to Bergé is never seen on film, rather, the tyrannical disputes of power within Laurent's fashion empire and the constant sexual espionage between the couple is used to replace some of the fluffy, real life moments between the couple, the real life Bergé applauded the film for being a rather authentic look of the life of he and his questionable true love. It's too bad Lespert's film is ruined with an annoying voice-over narration that reveals the film as B-grade cinema rather than stuffy, fine-French cinema couture.

Lespert is keen on making it clear that, Laurent had always led a privileged life, despite the horrors occurring in Oran, French Algeria (his birthplace) at the time of the late 1950's, and his family's move away from Algeria at the time and into France. Villa to villa, despite Laurent's apparent talent for fashion and designing, it shows just how much luck (good and bad), and being at the right place at the right time gave Laurent the opportunity to head the House of Dior, following Dior's sudden death at the age of fifty-two. But, the impact of the Algerian War of Independence doesn't stop there as it sucks Laurent back in when he is conscripted to join the French Army. Despite being the head of the House of Dior, Laurent enlists, only to be subjected to wide variety of medical tests that lead to illness, with tortuous means of remedy and an expulsion as Head Designer and a chance to head his own fashion house in the early 1960's, YSL.

One of Yves Saint Laurent's strengths as a film is showing the relationship between our self titled character and giving audiences a glimpse into the complicated life that he and his life partner, Bergé, really had. The heart of the film is seen between Niney and Gallienne, who give great insight on the chemistry between the great minds of such a powerful fashion brand and the inner workings of business geniuses, but a poorly matched couple. While watching the film, I couldn't help but notice how tasteful and well-constructed the scenes and relationship between Bergé and Laurent is highlighted, while earlier films this year, specifically the narratively crippled James Brown biopic Get On Up hardly gives justice to the complex inner workings of the business partnership and friendship between James Brown and notoriously anonymous Bobby Byrd.

I have to admit, up until the film introduces Laurent's muse Loulou de la Falaise, played by Laura Smet, I was confused, as I knew that Léa Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Color) strolled the red carpet in Cannes earlier this year for her role as the infamous muse. Once I was out of the theatre and was able to check my smart phone, it became clear that indeed, Seydoux did play de la Falaise, but not in this Laurent film. Saint Laurent, the other Yves Saint Laurent film made this year, who made its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, will surely be a daunting competition for this film, seeing as it was embraced and accepted into the highest class film festival, while this Laurent film may very well be the department store version of the Laurent story.

This movie is much better than I expected. I don't have much interest in haute couture, but I was gripped and the clothes whether on the catwalk or just in general were to die for. It's an awesome and skillfully made biopic that's really addictive and captures Yves Saint Laurent crazy life and pure genius as a self-destructive artist in a beautiful way.

In a career spanning fifty years YSL changed women's fashion, but at the movie's core is Saint Laurent's emotional passion, and the dynamics of the love story between him and Bergé. Lets say there wasn't too much loyalty in the bedroom but the movie sure captures the story of the tortured genius and the partner who kept him on track.

The movie is beautiful in every detail and the acting is exceptional throughout. Pierre Niney is outstanding as Laurent. He' s a freaking talented actor and I cannot believe that Yves himself would have been disappointed with the portrayal. His performance really made me feel for the guy. Guillaume Gallienne and Charlotte Le Bon are awesome too. I highly recommend this movie. There is something about French movies, even when they're not awesome, they're still great ☺

If you knew enough about Mr. Saint Laurent's life and already in love with his dazzling works on your way in, this film would satisfy you. Otherwise, you were left hanging out there, feeling that something's missing. This biopic did a good job in not overdramatizing the less-than-eventful life of this famous designer. We were allowed to observe the substantial life of Mr. Saint Laurent in a quiet but penetrating way. The actor actually brought back to life Mr. Saint Laurent. Through him, we feel the senses of fulfillment, deprivation, craving for stability or wilderness of love, and we acknowledge that Mr. Saint Laurent and his lifetime companion and business associate truly steered the Saint Laurent ship through the uncertainty of life and multi-faceted forms of human weakness. It shows us that artistic talents, while indispensable, must be supported by mental strength and determination, something Mr. Saint Laurent missed at times. Well, lust for money and financial success does help, I figure, but it is never the main element to real success. To me personally, Mr. Saint Laurent's life is not enough to make a great drama. A biopic, yes, but not a drama. If the script writer should decide to explore inner thinking of Mr. Saint Laurent behind a few of his designs, and the struggle and the inspiration he had during the process, we might be getting a drama in our hands. Another lacking element was the pressure of changing decades / era. The film simply moved us from this year to another, without real insertion on what all these time changes meant. They should have brought us new challenges, fears, uncertainty, and the other world around the fashion world. There was none of it. Judging from this film alone, Mr. Saint Laurent simply floated around this world, graced upon it, and simply left. Not enough.

Review: This movie gives an in depth look into Yves Saint Laurent life, which had its ups and downs throughout his successful career in the fashion industry. I liked the way that the director showed how he became famous after his brief take over from Christian Dior. It really does show the dark side of his life and his battle with his inner demons whilst trying to sustain his career. Pierre Berge really was the genius behind the business side of his fashion world, but when it came to the actual designing and production of his amazing clothes, you really can't fault Saint Laurent. His whole thought process was extremely unique which was noticed by Pierre, earlier on his in career. After battling through many obstacles in his life, Yves always received love from the public through his fashion which is still popular to this day. As a movie, I found it entertaining and an eye opener, into a world which I know nothing about. Enjoyable!

Round-Up: I haven't heard of any of the actors in this movie before, but man, they really did do a good job. The emotion and drama throughout the movie was great and the performance by the leading actor couldn't have been played better by anyone else. His mannerism and gestures were spot on and he actually did look like Saint Laurent. I would have liked to see what had happened in his career before he sadly died in 2008 of brain cancer, but it's still a very well put together biopic. After watching the bonus features on the DVD, I saw that the real Pierre Berge helped with the move and he gave them permission to use the real clothes and shoot in Yves apartments which shows how in depth the movie really is. It would have been good to see some real footage of the man himself, but that's just me being fussy. I'm not usually one that likes movies with subtitles, but I didn't lose interest throughout the movie, which is a plus for me.

Budget: €12million Worldwide Gross: $20million

I recommend this movie to people who are interested in Yves Saint Laurent and the troubled mind behind his successful career as a fashion designer. 6/10