[yasr_overall_rating]
Yves Saint Laurent’s life from 1967 to 1976, during which time the famed fashion designer was at the peak of his career.
It is clear that director Bertrand Bonello has a genuine appreciation of Yves Saint Laurent, his biopic on one of the most influential designers of the 20th century has been handled with such delicate artistry, carefully balancing the drama while preserving the unnervingly genteel yet mildly debauched and fragile character of Yves Saint Laurent (Gaspard Ulliel). Bonello attempts an ambitious portrayal of Yves’ most successful years, abandoning a strictly linear structure. We move from year to year and even are met with an older Yves (Helmut Berger). While the structure may be breaking away from the typical biopic, it is not necessarily successful. The inclusion of Yves circa 1989 to the story seems nearly an afterthought, a subtle attempt of including a moral air to the film, and detracts from the momentum of the film. That is not to say that Saint Laurent is not mesmerizing, holding you hostage to the flutterings of bright chiffon, extravagant dwellings, and seedy relationships.
The tall lithe silhouette, angular features, and deft movements of Gaspard Ulliel as a young Yves Saint Laurent is on point and the light never draws away from him. His friends, muses, and lovers are but mere ornamentation, adding to the brilliance, destruction, and glory that is Yves. They all have their roles, Loulou de la Falaise (Lea Seydoux) and Betty Catroux (Aymeline Valade) as enigmatic muses appearing here and there in the background, Pierre Berge (Jérémie Renier) the loyal business/longtime romantic partner tending to the YSL brand and tempering Yves as his self destruction becomes more evident, and then there is of course Jacques de Bascher (Louis Garrel) the debonair playboy (complete with the intrinsically wicked moustache) with whom Yves engages in a love-lust relationship fuelled by drugs. But make no mistake about it; it is indeed all about Yves.
I imagine it is hard to create a biopic. All the evidence and sources of a person’s life may be at your disposal but to re-create the essence of a prominent figure is a daunting task indeed. You are always at risk of creating a contrived portrayal of a person’s life with only a thimble’s worth of soul. Bonello’s Saint Laurent has soul. Dialogue is sparse but does not hinder the film, rather it adds to the mystery of Yves. And it must be noted, that the soundtrack is fantastic and contributes to the format of showing rather than telling. It elicits a feeling of being there, experiencing the chaos, the delusions, and triumphs. While the film itself may be a bit discombobulated, many of the scenes can stand alone as a work of art in and of themselves. It is honest to say that you cannot feign to know Yves anymore than you did before viewing the film but the essence of Yves and the era is present.
In select theaters including the Angelika Film Center in Plano May 22nd
