“If I can’t express myself, I’ll die.” – YSL

In honor of couture week, I thought a review of the Yves Saint Laurent biopic was in order. This year marks 8 years since the designer’s death and there are 2 films about him circulating. The first, “Yves Saint Laurent” was released earlier this year in Europe and just arrived in the US last week. The second, “Saint Laurent” is scheduled for release in October.

Yves became the design director for the house of Dior upon Christian Dior’s untimely death in 1957. He had moderate success at the house, but was fired after a nervous breakdown during his mandatory military service. Pierre Berge, Yves’ lover, successfully sued Dior and used the award money to finance Yves’ own coutute house.

The film, directed by Jalill Lespert, has the approval of Berge and is based on letters he wrote to Yves after the designer’s death. It’s probably as close to the truth as we’re ever going to get. The story is as much Berge’s as it is Yves’. So, there is some legend making going on here. Obviously, there would be no Yves Saint Laurent without Pierre Berge. He kept Yves alive for decades as he spiraled downward into alcoholism, drug addiction and mental illness. Berge, with this film, along with “L’Amour Fou”, assures that the house and the legend of Yves Saint Laurent will be around for generations.

The film explores the Berge-Saint Laurent relationship and gives a fairly accurate view of Paris gay life in the 60’s and 70’s. It also touches on Saint Laurent’s affair with one of Karl Lagerfeld’s boyfriends – the fashion world is very small! Regretably, it only briefly touches on the homophobia and bullying Yves experienced as a child and haunted him the rest of his life.

Yves Saint Laurent is showing at the Film Forum. Go!