Yves Saint Laurent (2014)

Directed by: Jalil Lespert
Country: France

Movie Review: “Yves Saint Laurent” is an uninspired biopic of the famous French fashion designer whose happiness in life didn’t match the success achieved in his professional career. Directed by Jalil Lespert, who also has a parallel career as actor, the film was loosely based on the book by Laurence Benaim, using a compromising narrative. The episodes, depicted in a cold way, follow one another without giving us many motives to care about the characters. For several times I thought it would become interesting and would grow as a whole, but I was wrong. The story starts with Laurent being hired by the distinguished designer Christian Dior, and then taking a prominent position in Dior’s company after his death. Suffering from frequent nervous depressions, he is fired and takes the opportunity to open his own creative fashion brand. Nothing of this would seem possible without the help of his lover Pierre Bergé, the film’s narrator, with whom he had a complicated relationship filled with betrayals and little revenges from both sides. Pierre decided to deal with his jealousy by having a sexual episode with Victoire, a model who had been proposed to marry Laurent in the beginning of his career. In turn, years later, Laurent falls in love with Jacques de Bascher, a socialite who had a long-term relationship with another recognized fashion designer, Karl Lagerfeld. This love, along with an eternal dissatisfaction, will push Saint Laurent to a spiral of drugs and alcohol – he was right when said ‘apart from my work, I feel lost’. Too formal, “Yves Saint Laurent” uses the word elegance too many times, but is emotionally detached, regardless the thorough performance by Pierre Niney.