Review of Yves Saint Laurent (2014) by Foxgrove — 24 Jun 2014

Yves Saint Laurent has a free flowing naturalness to it which makes it compelling. The loosely structured screenplay also eschews the usual conventional boring bits of childhood's formative years. These sequences can often plague many a bio-pic and have been wisely omitted here. In fact, the film only deals with a relatively small period of the designer's life. Pierre Niney, I am told, has been made to look very much like the real man and his performance is suitably impressive. However, I must admit to being more taken with Guillaume Gallienne in the less showy role of his business manager, cum real life partner. A perfect case of less is more. The film is assisted immeasurable by a wonderful score which changes its style with the decades.

On the negative side I would say that the film loses its way slightly during the period in the sixties when YSL was on a mission of self destruction. The interest does slightly wane here. Also, it would have been informative for an end title card to advise viewers as to the cause of its subjects death. Still, overall it has been critically underrated.