FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
YVES SAINT LAURENT: HIS LIFE AND TIMES
YVES SAINT LAURENT: 5, AVENUE MARCEAU, 755116 PARIS
Art, culture or fashion lovers who are unsure which new documentary about Yves Saint Laurent
to see must chose 5, Avenue Marceau over His Life and Times. The latter pales in comparison to the poetic language of the former.
There are beautiful moments in His Life and Times, though, like the one in which his mother sits
in a garden and reluctantly discusses the homosexuality of young Yves while thunder
coincidentally rumbles in the background. On the whole, however, this documentary doesn’t
satisfy. The problem begins at the title - it creates the expectation of an in-depth historical
biography, then doesn’t deliver. The interviews remain superficial: director Teboul seems to be
so impressed by glitter, glamour and famous people that he falls into an uncritical silence. We
never hear why Yves broke with his partner, Pierre Bergé, or exactly what “dangerous
things” he did with his confidante, Betty Catroux. It’s incomprehensible, then, why this
film, which makes use of much rehashed material, doesn’t include footage of the
dramatic press conference Saint Laurent gave in 2002 where the couturier, on the verge of a
nervous breakdown, announced that he was forced to quit because there’s no
longer any room for haute couture.
The fact that the world of fashion has been taken over by corporations and mass production is
precisely what renders 5, Avenue Marceau a breathtaking document of the times. YSL
belongs to a dying species, the elite that vanished as a result of capitalism’s marketing strategies.
But in the mirrored rooms of 5, Avenue Marcaue, where we see Yves and his team hard at work
on his final collection, you’d hardly know it. There, power is given to the imagination because, as
the master says: “It is only aesthetic ghosts that makes life possible.” Ravishing!
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