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Yves St Laurent biopic misses chance to show drama and intrigue

THE STORIED couturier Yves Saint Laurent was renowned for his bold designs.

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Yves Saint Laurent (Pierre Niney) and his muse Victoire Doutreleau (played by Charlotte Le Bon).

Yves Saint Laurent
Starring:
Pierre Niney, Guillaume Gallienne, Charlotte Le Bon
Director: Jalil Lespert
Category: IIB (French)
3 stars

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couturier Yves Saint Laurent was renowned for his bold designs. Born in the waning days of French colonial rule in Oran, Algeria, and placed at the altar of the Christian Dior fashion house at only 21 years of age, the shy but brilliant designer's life has great potential as a subject of triumph and tragedy.

But director Jalil Lespert merely offers a nice-to-look-at Wikipedia page of fashion history. There is little attempt to discern the eccentricities behind YSL's character and contradictory behaviour, and the focus is sometimes on his faults. One moment, he is a frail savant, ignorant of the realities of business, the next he cleverly deserts an interview with reporters to spite his business partner and lover. No attempt is made to reconcile the two sides of his personality, other than to present him as just another tortured artist.

This film has the approval and support of Saint Laurent's former lover and business partner Pierre Bergé, and this likely limited its narrative content. Part of the story is actually based on Bergé's book, so it is as much about him (played by Guillaume Gallienne) being the loyal wind beneath Saint Laurent's wings, as it is about YSL himself.

Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge (Guillaume Gallienne).
Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge (Guillaume Gallienne).

Pierre Niney delivers a startling impression of the great designer, full of personal insecurity and tantrums. The character and the film come alive during the scenes at Saint Laurent's atelier and during the couture shows. That's where the nervous energy and tyrannical outbursts make sense. But there aren't enough of these fashion moments to capture YSL's genius.
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Other segments, such as when the designer is pouting and whimpering at home, are simply annoying. Saint Laurent talks about getting bullied as a boy in school. Why not just show it as a scene? His brief conscription into the French army, which led to a breakdown, is also alluded to, rather than depicted. To use a clothes analogy, don't tell me about a great dress you saw, just show me the dress.

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