Bonello’s Saint Laurent, Bio-Pic #2

Last year, Jalil Lespert’s Saint Laurent biopic was first out of gate, simply but aptly titled Yves Saint Laurent. Now, Bertrand Bonello follows with the even more basically titled Saint Laurent. Evidently, the next filmmaker who tries his hand at the celebrated fashion designer’s story will have to call it Laurent, or maybe the evocative YSL. Regardless, the second duly follows the first, boasting a more famous French cast but lacking the blessing of YSL’s longtime partner, Pierre Bergé. Break your Mondrian dress out of mothballs for the American release of Bonello’s Saint Laurent (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

For the backstory, refer to Lespert. Bonello picks the film up in 1967 and just runs with the era’s excesses. Saint Laurent is poised to explode globally and Bergé, his partner (both in love and business) will make the deals to fully exploit his notoriety. Unfortunately, as the chemically infused parties blur into each other, Saint Laurent becomes increasingly preoccupied with the sexual charms of model Jacques De Bascher. From time to time, Bergé will even create a bit of a scene, but he can usually get the faithless designer to come home whenever he buys a new piece for their remarkable art collection.

That is kind of it. Bonello’s film is a rather static portrait that luxuriates in the hedonistic surface of YSL’s life and never digs into the iconic figures’ inner workings. To judge solely from the film, it is absolutely baffling how an uptight square like Bergé and a drug-soused sex addict like Saint Laurent could ever be a couple. There is no explanation of their relationship, except for an admittedly brilliant scene of them admiring a newly acquired painting. Bonello’s take on Saint Laurent is entirely an example of style over substance, but what dazzling style it is.

Although Saint Laurent spends most of the film lounging on a couch, Bonello’s camera darts and pans restlessly, soaking up the debauched nightlife. He makes inspired use of split screens, evoking a fashion magazine’s layout. Frankly, this is probably the most visually dynamic film of the year—and that counts for a lot.

Arguably, the cast-members are just accessories to the ensemble Bonello creates. Gaspard Ulliel’s Saint Laurent is a lifeless cipher who is rather unpleasant to spend time with. Helmut Berger’s third act appearance as the designer in 1989 adds little depth, serving mainly as a curtain call. Jérémie Renier conveys some of the maturity and determination of Bergé, but the film stacks the deck against him, largely portraying him a jealous lover. Adding color if not substance, Louis Garrel out-preens Maria Callas as De Bascher, while model Aymeline Valade exhibits enough snap and verve as model Betty Catroux to suggest she might have potential in a film with actual human interaction.

Bonello’s film is all about the gloss, which is why it is so seductive. This is probably the version Saint Laurent would enjoy more, whereas Bergé would better appreciate Lespert’s approach, even if he were not more closely associated with it. Indeed, he deserved better treatment from Bonello, especially considering how he stood up to the Chinese government’s bullying when he was liquidating the collection he amassed with YSL. Pointedly, he offered to return two Qing Dynasty bronzes they claimed if they started to “observe human rights and give liberty to the Tibetan people and welcome the Dalai Lama.” Of course, that is a little outside the scope of either film. Bonello’s Saint Laurent is an immersive work that overwhelms the senses, but leaves little emotional trace behind. For those in the mood for something flashy and slick, Bonello’s Saint Laurent can’t be topped when it opens this Friday (5/8) in New York, at the Angelika Film Center.

Yves Saint Laurent: Bio-Pic Number #1

He was the first fashion designer to be given his own exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was recently the subject of a comprehensive retrospective at the Denver Art Museum. However, Yves Saint Laurent’s did not always act in a manner appropriate for such hallowed institutions. Jalil Lespert gets the first crack at dramatizing Saint Laurent’s storied career and chaotic private life with Yves Saint Laurent (trailer here), which opens this Wednesday at Film Forum.

Lespert’s treatment reaches international audiences before Bertrand Bonello’s even more simply titled Saint Laurent (sort of like the competing Ip Man films), but they are both trailing Pierre Thoretton’s should-have-been-better documentary, L’Amour fou. Like Thoretton, Lespert set sail with the blessing of Saint Laurent’s longtime life partner, business fixer, and co-collector Pierre Bergé. Ironically, this seems to have given Lespert considerable license to explore some of the darker corners of the designer’s psyche.

We meet Saint Laurent as an earnest young French Algerian, who is too delicate for a settler’s life, but still considers Algiers as French as the Champs-Elysees. Soon he relocates to Paris, working his way up the design ranks at the house of Dior. When it is time for Saint Laurent to strike out on his own, it will be Bergé who raises the necessary funds. As the responsible one, Bergé will also patch Saint Laurent together after his various breakdowns. Yet, despite his efforts, keeping Saint Laurent away from the temptations of fast living becomes a full time losing battle.

While Lespert offers up plenty of Saint Laurent’s dark nights of the soul, he still knows what most patrons want from a movie like this: pretty clothes and pretty people. Thanks to the YSL archive and Charlotte Le Bon appearing as Saint Laurent’s former favorite model Victoire Doutrelaeu, Lespert’s film has plenty of both. In fact, Le Bon adds a wonderfully melodramatic edge to the proceedings.

Laura Smet is also nicely decorative as Doutreleau’s replacement, Loulou de la Falaise, but she is just overwhelmed by the psychedelic trappings of the late 1960s-early 1970s era. Frankly, the same largely applies to Lespert’s ostensive lead, the feather-light and paper-thin Pierre Niney (of the Comédie Française). Perhaps by design, his Saint Laurent is largely a cipher, unto which everyone else projects the YSL they need or want.

Somewhat logically given Bergé’s support, Saint Laurent’s long suffering partner emerges as the emotional center and dramatic anchor of Lespert’s bio-pic. Guillaume Gallienne (also of the Comédie Française) is terrific balancing the YSL CEO’s jealousy and wounded pride, as well as resoluteness and maturity. It really is Bergé’s film and Gallienne carries it, accordingly. In fact, you have to give the real life Bergé credit for having the guts to throw China’s human rights record back in its face when they demanded the return of two Winter Palace bronzes he put up for auction as part of the collection he amassed with Saint Laurent.

There is plenty of scandal and heartache in Lespert’s YSL, but it is a rather pleasant viewing experience thanks to his light touch and spritely pace. Ibrahim Maalouf’s upbeat soundtrack, stylishly mixing elements of jazz and 1960s pop also provides a key assist, as well as one of the film’s most accomplished creative collaborators, Italian alto and tenor saxophonist Stefano di Battista. It all looks and sounds great, which its subjects would most certainly appreciate. Recommended for fans of high fashion and fashionable House of Eliott-style drama, Yves Saint Laurent (the first one) opens this Wednesday (6/25) at New York’s Film Forum.

Tribeca ’11: L’Amour Fou

In Olivier Assayas’s wistful and sophisticated Summer Hours, a family reluctantly sells off their late father’s remarkable collection to pay the punishing French estate taxes. At times it is a difficult process, because every object has a special significance. Such would seem to be the case with the Saint Laurent-Bergé collection. After the death of his famous designer lover, Pierre Bergé decided to auction off the extraordinary art and decorative objects they had amassed together. Unfortunately, Pierre Thoretton forgets his own hook in the disappointingly run of the mill documentary profile L’Amour Fou (trailer here), which screens during the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.

L’Amour starts with archival footage of Yves Saint Laurent’s 2002 retirement speech, which might have been an epochal event in fashion history, but often sounds maddeningly circuitous to philistine ears. We then watch as Bergé starts preparing for the so-called “auction of the century.” Yet despite serving as the film’s framing device, Thoretton shows little interest in the individual items in the collection and what they might represent. Surely, every piece has a story, but we never hear, aside from the occasional offhand comment. Instead, Thoretton concentrates on Saint Laurent’s life story.

Of course, this is a perfectly respectable, if conventional approach, to his subject. However, YSL’s life simply does not hold a lot of surprises, at least as chronicled by Thoretton, relying heavily on Bergé’s reminiscences. Through hard work, he was able to make a name for himself as young man. Over the years, he and Bergé maintained a close relationship, despite the couturier’s partying and infidelities. Though he was a spectacular success, he was periodically plagued with bouts of depression, yet persevered until he sensed it was time to bow out gracefully. Frankly, viewers might have guessed as much, even if they do not follow the fashion world.

When the collection starts selling at auction, it is clearly supposed to L’Amour’s big finish. Yet, since we know next to nothing about the individual pieces or how they were acquired, the process ultimately means little to viewers. These are not Matisses and Brancusis the unsentimental Bergé is selling, they are widgets with lot numbers.

For those looking for a general film biography of YSL, L’Amour generally fits the bill. Thoretton clearly had intimate access to Bergé, easily the most important figure in the designer’s life. Though there is nothing objectionable in the film, there hardly seems to be a pressing need for it, given David Teboul’s generally well-received documentaries covered much the same ground, only missing his final four or five post-retirement years. Very much a straight off the rack film, L’Amour screens at Tribeca this coming Tuesday (4/26), Thursday (4/28), and Friday (4/29).