Advertisement

Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

Yves Saint Laurent

YVES SAINT LAURENT (Jalil Lespert). 106 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (August 15). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NN


Some biopics try to communicate what made their subjects worthy of commemoration. Others pick their subjects apart in an attempt to understand them. And then there are biopics like Jalil Lespert’s Yves Saint Laurent, which simply tell you what their subjects did and with whom they slept, one event at a time.

It covers about 20 years in the life of YSL, from 1958 – when he first distinguished himself as a designer for Christian Dior – to 1978, when he had a very successful show that does not appear, at least to me, to be much different from any of his other many successful shows. Saint Laurent lived another 30 years, but whatever. The credits roll.

I have no idea what drew Lespert to this story other than possibly the chance to play in Saint Laurent’s world. And certainly it’s an awfully impressive one, filled with colours and clothes and flesh and all manner of debauchery.

But we’re not invited in, just watching from the periphery as Pierre Niney maintains a single expression – eyes popped, lips pursed – as Saint Laurent and Guillaume Gallienne grows increasingly irritated as his business partner and lover, Pierre Bergé.

And that gets awfully dull.

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.