Saint Laurent (film)

Movie
German title	Saint Laurent
Original title	Saint Laurent
Country of production	France
original language	French
Publishing year	2014
length	142 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Bertrand Bonello
script	Thomas Bidegain , ; Bertrand Bonello
production	Eric Altmayer , ; Nicolas Altmayer , ; Christophe Lambert
music	Bertrand Bonello
camera	Josée Deshaies
cut	Fabrice Rouaud
occupation
	Gaspard Ulliel : Yves Saint Laurent ; Jérémie Renier : Pierre Bergé ; Louis Garrel : Jacques de Bascher ; Léa Seydoux : Loulou de la Falaise ; Aymeline Valade : Betty Catroux; Amira Casar : Anne-Marie Munoz; Micha Lescot : Monsieur Jean-Pierre; Helmut Berger : Yves Saint Laurent (1989); Valeria Bruni Tedeschi : Mme Duzer; Jonathan Louis : Man in the evening; Valérie Donzelli : Renée; Jasmine Trinca : Talitah Getty; Dominique Sanda : Lucienne;

Saint Laurent is a 2014 drama film about the life of French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent from 1967 to 1976, when he was at the height of his career. The film opened in French cinemas on September 24, 2014.

action

Paris, 1974: The fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent stays in a hotel under the name “Swann” (based on Marcel Proust's fictional character). He conducts an interview by phone in which he talks about his depression.

Jump in time to 1967: Yves Saint Laurent is a successful fashion designer. His creations are in great demand and he dresses numerous celebrities, such as Marguerite Duras or Catherine Deneuve . In a nightclub he met the Chanel model Betty Catroux, who inspired him to create his “tuxedo” for women. The Frenchman is celebrated worldwide for this achievement, and even the American painter and Pop Art artist Andy Warhol sends him his congratulations in a letter.

In 1970 Yves, his partner Pierre Bergé and their friends spent the summer in Saint Laurent's Villa Majorelle in Marrakech . Yves is working there on the "Liberation" collection, but it fails. He decides to take the famous nudes with which he advertises his fragrance “YSL pour Homme”. In the meantime, Bergé is trying to break the connection with Yves' international business partners in terms of fashion, only the "YSL" perfumes are to be sold by American franchisees. Accompanied by Betty Catroux and his new muse Loulou de la Falaise, the artist himself seeks distraction in the Parisian nightlife. There he met the dandy Jacques de Bascher , who was also friends with Karl Lagerfeld ( “People think that I don't work. But I work: I inspire Karl!” ). Saint Laurent falls head over heels in love with the handsome bon vivant and has an affair with him. They celebrate orgy parties and consume excessively intoxicants. Saint Laurent is getting more and more into a vicious circle of alcohol and pill addiction. The first victim of these wild celebrations is Yves' bulldog Moujik, who dies after consuming scattered drugs.

Bergé finally ended the relationship between Saint Laurent and Jacques de Bascher. Then Yves only got in touch with his ex-lover by letter. His creative crisis continues, however. Bergé even has to lock his friend up at home so that he does not seek refuge in drugs again. After Yves tries to kill the sleeping Pierre Bergé with a sculpture, the businessman seeks help. Hospitalization becomes inevitable. The film constantly alternates between the childhood memories of Saint Laurent and the artist (played by Helmut Berger ) in 1989, who is about to retreat from the world of fashion.
In the hospital, Saint Laurent finally succeeds in designing new clothes: Bergé and Loulou de la Falaise and the YSL team put together the presentation of the same on their own. The 1976 show was a great success, which the master himself could attend.

The film ends in 1977, when the rumor circulates that Saint Laurent has died and journalists from the Liberation newspaper visit the artist in his studio to see for themselves how lively it is. Bergé jokingly asks Saint Laurent for a sign of life ("Please move your arm so we can see that you are alive!"): He then grins devilishly into the camera.

Origin and production

The film started shooting in September 2013. Due to the upcoming release of the film Yves Saint Laurent , which also deals with the life of the fashion designer, the release was initially postponed to October 2014. The world premiere finally took place in Cannes in May 2014.

In contrast to Jalil Lespert's Yves Saint Laurent , the film was not authorized by Pierre Bergé , the business partner and partner of the late Saint Laurent. Therefore, it was not possible to shoot at the original locations, and Bonello and his team were also not allowed to shoot original pieces from the collections. Bergé had even threatened a lawsuit in advance if copyrights were violated.

Helmut Berger , who portrays the aging Yves Saint Laurent here , was friends with the fashion designer. For the film Violence and Passion (1974), Saint Laurent designed costumes specially tailored to the film for Helmut Berger. For the film Die Romantische Engländerin (1975) Berger was again furnished by him. At a press conference in Cannes, director Bonello called the line-up with Berger an "obvious choice". The aging Yves Saint Laurent is played by Berger, but dubbed in the original sound by Gaspard Ulliel .

The film's director, Bertrand Bonello , has two guest appearances; once as a photographer of a YSL advertisement, in which only his voice can be heard, and a second appearance as a journalist towards the end of the film.

criticism

The reviews were mostly positive. Le Monde assessed Saint Laurent as Bonellos "undoubtedly the most complete and complete work".

Among the few mostly negative reviews, the composition of the scenes was often criticized. Paris Match said : "The problem is that by juggling the 'flashbacks' he [Bonello] creates a film that, I guess, seems very incoherent."

For the Schweizer Tages-Anzeiger , the film presents an “otherwise […] rather soulless aesthetic that the couturier is supposed to have made part of the program himself.” “The images reflect the soul of a man who complains that he has never really lived and wants to forget his life weariness in the drug intoxication. ”Furthermore, Ulliel's portrayal was criticized as“ far less convincing ”than that of Pierre Niney in the film Yves Saint Laurent .