The revolutionary French fashion designer is the subject of two biopics this year. This one has the blessing of Saint Laurent’s lifelong partner and heir, Pierre Bergé; he loaned the filmmakers real designs from the couturier’s archives.
Bergé (Guillaume Gallienne) is also director Jalil Lespert’s true focus. Even when Gallienne is not on-screen, he’s narrating: “You had the stuff of genius.” Saint Laurent (played with uncanny accuracy by Pierre Niney) goes through nervous breakdowns, addictions and affairs with gold diggers, but remains a comparatively opaque personality.
Saint Laurent was known for an almost monk-like focus on his work. And so this film springs to life — the actors, the camera, the editing — when we see his creations the way they were meant to be seen: in motion, and worn by beautiful women.