Yves Saint Laurent (2014)
Directed by Jalil Lespert

Film Review

Six years after his death in 2008, Yves Saint Laurent is someone who continues to fascinate and inspire, such was his immense contribution to the fashion world and the turbulence of his private life.  In 2010, Pierre Thoretton gave us an eye-opening insight into the relationship between Saint-Laurent and his lover and business partner Pierre Bergé in his documentary L'Amour fou.  2014 sees the release of two further French films celebrating the life and work of YSL, the first by actor-turned-director Jalil Lespert, the second (due to be released in France in October) by maverick auteur Bertrand Bonello.

Unlike Bonello, Lespert had the accord and full support of Pierre Bergé, a mixed blessing as it turned out.  Lespert was given free access to YSL's favourite haunts (including his workshops and an apartment he shared with Bergé) and was allowed to make use of many of his creations, privileges that were denied Bonello.  The downside is that, in his Faustian pact with Bergé, Lespert has had to sacrifice artistic independence and his film is too compliant to the myth that Pierre Bergé has sought to create since his partner's demise.  The story is told mostly from Bergé's perspective, with a running commentary by Bergé that feels like an over-long love letter.  Without Bergé's ubiquitous controlling influence, Bonello's film is likely to be far more radical and revealing.  Lespert's might be the hors d'oeuvre for the feast that is yet to come. 

With this, his third directorial offering, Jalil Lespert is shaping up to be competent, albeit not particularly inspired, filmmaker.  In contrast to his previous two low-key dramas, 24 mesures (2007) and Des vents contraires (2011), Yves Saint Laurent is a visually compelling and stylish piece of cinema that has all the razzamataz of the fashion world but offers surprisingly little beneath its glossy surface.  In essence, it's just another big budget biopic in the tortured genius line, and the only thing that makes it particularly memorable is the extraordinary central performance from Pierre Niney, superbly complemented by the equally talented Guillaume Gallienne as Bergé.

Niney's portrayal of Yves Saint Laurent is enthralling, a harrowingly authentic depiction of a man who is completely consumed by his need to express himself artistically, at the risk of his own sanity.  With the phoney world of fashion pressing down on his slender shoulders, Niney's YSL appears like a neurotic Atlas who would doubtless buckle under the strain were it not for the constant support of a devoted but mercurial partner, in the shape of Pierre Bergé.  It is the relationship between these two fascinating individuals that provides the real substance of the film, but you can't help feeling that too much has been left unsaid.  Lacking in psychological depth, unwilling to commit unreservedly to the dark fairy tale it has to tell, the film fails to deliver the emotional punch that we might have expected.

To its credit, the film does not shy away from the darker side of its subject and provides a frank account of YSL's crippling bouts of depression, drug taking sprees and other self-destructive episodes.  However, even through these grimmer interludes, Pierre Bergé's censoring influence can be felt.  Having lifted the lid, the film appears to be afraid to follow through and so what it offers us is no more than a tentative glimpse of the tragic side of its multi-faceted protagonist.  If only Lespert had had a little more experience and autonomy he might not have been quite so willing to play Trilby to Bergé's Svengali.  Who knows what surprises the unfettered Bonello has in store for us with his Saint Laurent exposé - hopefully something slightly more outré than Lespert's neutered off-the-peg offering.

Film Synopsis

Paris, 1957.  Yves Saint Laurent is only 21 when he takes over the running of the prestigious fashion house founded by the recently deceased Christian Dior.  It is in the course of his first fashion show that Saint Laurent will meet the man who will change his life, Pierre Bergé.  Lovers and business partners, the two men will create one of the world's best known brands, Yves Saint Laurent, unleashing on the world a fashion revolution...