L'amour fou

A documentary on Yves Saint Laurent's professional life from the age of 20 on as told mainly by his partner Pierre Bergé.

It is interesting to look inside a world that one knows nothing about-- What appears on the everyday street is so far removed from the weird out of the world outfits of these fashion houses. They must have to make any serious money off accessories = purple purses and matching earrings and so forth...

My overriding question is why did Bergé sell off everything the minute Saint Laurent was dead?....that does not speak of a healthy relationship no matter how you try to dress it up. People who really love someone want to leave everything the same. Some lame excuse is offered that a museum was too expensive, I don't buy it. Bergé got some enormous sum from the auction 500 million Euros or something.

Bergé is a bit of a dour lower middle class pedestrian man strange combination.

It is an interesting exploration of a successful gay man's life. How often do we see that?

RECOMMEND 7 Stars

"L'Amour Fou" is a documentary narrated by Yves Saint Laurent's romantic and business partner Pierre Berge about the life they shared for 50 years, focusing naturally on Saint Laurent's work but perhaps more surprisingly on the vast collection of paintings, sculptures and objects d'art that they amassed over their years together and, of course, on the love they had for each other. Theirs was a marriage of sorts, perhaps not made in heaven, but enduring and certainly passionate, a testament not just to the stability of gay relationships but of the ability to survive a life lived almost entirely in the spotlight, (though, of course, there were as many guns as roses in the relationship).

It's very simply made, (the director is Pierre Thoretton), with no narration other than Berge's and a few other talking heads from Saint Laurent's life. We are never nudged in any direction but left to make up our own minds. If the film has a fault it's that it never settles on any one point of view and in the end leaves us feeling rather chilly.

It begins with a totally sick Christies auction, which could make any Tea Party member go communist. Yves Saint-Laurent's lover, or shall we say lifetime love, is selling their furniture for fantasy prizes. It's a beautiful home, which certainly could have remained a museum.

We follow YSL through his career, starting as an assistant to Christian Dior. It develops into a life full of fame, celebration, meeting the most well-known people in the world, but also of despair and depression. A life he wants to end many times.

Upperclass problems if anything was. But you can't help getting touched by the destiny of this very shy and nervous person. A terrible snob with kind eyes.

This documentary chronicles the adult life of French fashion icon Yves St-Laurent, as told by his partner in life and business, Pierre Bergé. The history is told at the same time as Bergé prepares to sell off much of the works of art accumulated by the couple.

The older photos and film footage, beginning from the late 1950s, are gems. It showed how shy and soft-spoken St-Laurent was and how contradictory this might seem for such a successful person.

The material wealth of the two men was phenomenal. While it might have seemed that the wealth was being flaunted to envious viewers at the beginning, this is not the case later on - certainly by the conclusion. The film also displays the age-old understanding that money and fame don't buy happiness especially during a very rough time for the couple in the 1970s.

The film's style is charming especially when beautiful piano pieces are played in the background while the camera lurks about the mansions and art objects with Pierre in the foreground looking somber as a recent widower.

The men had been in an open relationship since the late 1950s. The film misses an opportunity to examine how this was widely accepted at the time in French society but not so in other societies back then. Perhaps, it was a non-issue to the film-makers. Maybe, the privacy of Yves and Pierre was respected during that time as they were part of the upper-class. In any case, this is a beautiful documentary. - dbamateurcritic.