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April 23, 2015

Spotlight: Saint Laurent


Photo Credit: Carole Bethuel

Editors' Notes

Gaspard Ulliel as Yves Saint Laurent

Photo Credit: Carole Bethuel

Editors' Notes

Gaspard Ulliel as Yves Saint Laurent

Photo Credit: Carole Bethuel

Editors' Notes

Gaspard Ulliel as Yves Saint Laurent

Photo Credit: Carole Bethuel

Editors' Notes

Jeremie Renier as Pierre Berge and Gaspard Ulliel as Yves Saint Laurent

Photo Credit: Carole Bethuel

Editors' Notes

Lea Seydoux as Loulou De Falaise, Gaspard Ulliel as Yves Saint Laurent and Aymeline Valade as Betty Catroux

Photo Credit: Carole Bethuel

Editors' Notes

Gaspard Ulliel as Yves Saint Laurent and Lea Seydoux as Loulou De Falaise

Photo Credit: Carole Bethuel

Editors' Notes

Gaspard Ulliel as Yves Saint Laurent

Photo Credit: Carole Bethuel

Editors' Notes

Helmet Berger as Yves Saint Laurent 1989

Photo Credit: Carole Bethuel

Editors' Notes

Aymeline Valade as Betty Catroux and Gaspard Ulliel as Yves Saint Laurent

Photo Credit: Carole Bethuel

Editors' Notes

Gaspard Ulliel as Yves Saint Laurent and Louie Garrel as Jacques De Bascher

Photo Credit: Carole Bethuel

Editors' Notes

Aymeline Valade as Betty Catroux, Lea Seydoux as Loulou De Falaise and Gaspard Ulliel as Yves Saint Laurent

Photo Credit: Carole Bethuel

Editors' Notes

Gaspard Ulliel as Yves Saint Laurent

Photo Credit: Carole Bethuel

Editors' Notes

Gaspard Ulliel as Yves Saint Laurent

The opening scene of Saint Laurent (Sony Pictures Classics), set in 1974, begins with Gaspard Ulliel—in the title role of Yves Saint Laurent, the Algerian-born French fashion designer—checking into a hotel room in Paris. The clerk asks Saint Laurent if he’s in Paris for business. He responds, “No, to sleep.” The film, which opens nationwide next month but is screening at the Castro Theatre on Sunday, April 26, as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival, chronicles the life and work of the often tortured creative during the height of his fame from 1967 to 1976. Saint Laurent is shown sketching, pinning, contemplating, and missing deadlines over and over again. He also spends a good deal of time on the Paris streets, and, heartache aside, the look of the film is lush and beautiful, just like the endless collections Saint Laurent sends down the runway during the pivotal 10 years filmmaker Bertrand Bonello depicts onscreen.

Production designer Anaïs Romand outfitted Ulliel, Léa Seydoux (as Loulou de la Falaise) and Aymeline Valade (as Betty Catroux) in wide lapel suits, bohemian skirts, and the famed le smoking tuxedo, respectively. Part of the film, which screened at last year’s AFI Fest in Los Angeles, shows Saint Laurent as a depressed elderly man. He recalls the brilliant colors of Marrakesh, the rooms of his home in Tangier, as well as the Jean-Michel Frank pieces from the Paris apartment he shared with Pierre Bergé. At one point in the film, the designer says his work in fashion “just proves that I’m a failed painter.” The highs and lows are recounted equally, and the toll of a brilliant career becomes clear.

By Elizabeth Varnell

Pictured: Gaspard Ulliel as Yves Saint Laurent
Photo by: Carole Bethuel, © 2014 Mandarin Cinema-EuropaCorp-Orange Studio-Arte France Cinema-Scope Pictures, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

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