| Saint Laurent | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Bertrand Bonello |
| Written by |
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| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Josée Deshaies |
| Edited by | Fabrice Rouaud |
| Music by | Bertrand Bonello |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | EuropaCorp Distribution |
Release dates |
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Running time | 150 minutes[1] |
| Country | France |
| Languages |
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| Budget | €8.7 million[2] |
| Box office | $2.4 million[2] |
Saint Laurent is a 2014 Frenchbiographicaldrama film co-written and directed byBertrand Bonello, and starringGaspard Ulliel asYves Saint Laurent,Jérémie Renier asPierre Bergé, andLouis Garrel asJacques de Bascher. The supporting cast featuresLéa Seydoux,Amira Casar, Aymeline Valade, andHelmut Berger.[3][4] The film centers on Saint Laurent's life from 1967 to 1976, during which time the famed fashion designer was at the peak of his career.[5] The film competed for thePalme d'Or in the main competition section at the2014 Cannes Film Festival[6] and was released in France on 24 September 2014.[5]
It was selected as the French entry for theBest Foreign Language Film at the87th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.[7] In January 2015,Saint Laurent received ten nominations at the40th César Awards, includingBest Film,Best Director,Best Actor, andBest Supporting Actor.[8] It also received five nominations at the20th Lumière Awards, winningBest Actor for Gaspard Ulliel.[9][10]
The film tells the story of fashion designerYves Saint Laurent at the peak of his career between 1967 and 1976. The film starts with Saint Laurent alone and depressed in a hotel room apparently after a night of partying in Paris nightclubs. He is placing a call to a newspaper journalist to grant a tell-all interview which he had previously declined.
In the mid-1960s, Saint Laurent emerges as a leading voice in French fashion. His business begins to flourish and grow internationally. Less well known about his private life is his love of the Paris nightlife, and the clubs and homes of the rich and avant-garde. Saint Laurent enjoys the nightlife and the endless hours of champagne, pot, and drugs which seem to surround him at every turn. During one evening, he sees an attractive model,Betty Catroux, at a nightclub and approaches her about becoming a model for his fashion house. She turns him down saying that she is under contract withChanel. Saint Laurent is persistent and keeps repeating his requests, while continuing to flatter her good looks. As the evening progresses, the two begin dancing together on the discotheque floor, and then start to mingle having drinks together. Later that week, Betty is seen in Saint Laurent's studio modeling his new designs for him while he creates his new fashions, and Saint Laurent celebrates having recruited one of Chanel's top model for his own fashion house.
Saint Laurent's success continues and he forms a long-term same-sex relationship with his business manager,Pierre Bergé, which is profitable to both men financially and in their personal emotional lives. Saint Laurent's use of alcohol and drugs seems to continue and to grow along with his international success as a fashion designer. On one night out of partying, a young male operative namedJacques de Bascher spies out Saint Laurent and approaches him with plainly presented romantic and sexual intentions. Saint Laurent is captivated by his good looks and the two begin an intensely explicit affair. Their preferred mutual habits of enjoying the Paris nightlife and drug use seem to spiral them out of control into a tumultuous relationship. Saint Laurent's long-term affair with Pierre at this fashion house in put on hold as Saint Laurent continues his new romantic affair with Jacques.
When Saint Laurent wakes up one morning in his hotel room, seemingly alone and dejected, he calls the newspaper journalist whom he had previously declined to interview with, and now present his own sensational tell-all version of his sexual proclivities and his penchant for the Paris nightlife. When his office and Pierre later learn that the newspaper is planning to proceed with the tell-all interview, they react harshly and threaten legal action for defamation and libel against the newspaper if they go ahead with publication. They state that the telephone interview was a prank by someone unknown to Saint Laurent and that printing the interview would only cause the newspaper embarrassment to their own reputation as journalists, as well as years in court defending themselves against a costly lawsuit for libel.
The film moves forward in time, showing Saint Laurent in old age living in his opulent Paris apartments surrounded by fine art and expensive fetishist possessions in his collection of exotic leopard skins and other wildlife shown on display throughout his flat. Saint Laurent dies in old age having become one of the most accomplished Paris fashion designers of the 20th century.
Principal photography began on 30 September 2013 in Paris andMarrakesh.[11]
The film was originally scheduled to be released in France on 14 May 2014. In January 2014, the release was pushed back to 1 October 2014.[12] The release date was later changed to 24 September 2014.[5]
In May 2014,Sony Pictures Classics acquired the North American rights at the2014 Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered in competition.[6][13] The film was also screened at the52nd New York Film Festival in September 2014.[14]
In May 2015, the film opened in four theaters in New York City and Los Angeles to a $36,136 opening weekend.[15]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 63% based on 86 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A well-intentioned but frustratingly diffuse biopic,Saint Laurent proves an ironically poor fit for a look at the life of a fashion icon."[16]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 52 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[17]
Susan Wloszczyna ofRogerEbert.com gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, writing, "If you come away remembering anything from this 150-minute movie as it overstays its welcome, it will be individual scenes rather than the overall effect, for that is where Bonello shines."[18]A. O. Scott ofThe New York Times described it as "a compulsively detailed swirl of moods and impressions, intent on capturing the contradictions of the man and his times."[19]
| Award | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref(s) |
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| Cannes Film Festival | Palme d'Or | Saint Laurent | Nominated | |
| César Awards | Best Film | Saint Laurent | Nominated | [20] |
| Best Director | Bertrand Bonello | Nominated | ||
| Best Actor | Gaspard Ulliel | Nominated | ||
| Best Supporting Actor | Louis Garrel | Nominated | ||
| Jérémie Renier | Nominated | |||
| Best Production Design | Katia Wyszkop | Nominated | ||
| Best Sound | Nicolas Cantin, Nicolas Moreau, Jean-Pierre Laforce | Nominated | ||
| Best Cinematography | Josée Deshaies | Nominated | ||
| Best Editing | Fabrice Rouaud | Nominated | ||
| Best Costume Design | Anaïs Romand | Won | ||
| Globes de Cristal Award | Best Actor | Gaspard Ulliel | Nominated | |
| Louis Delluc Prize | Best Film | Saint Laurent | Nominated | |
| Lumière Awards | Best Film | Saint Laurent | Nominated | |
| Best Director | Bertrand Bonello | Nominated | ||
| Best Actor | Gaspard Ulliel | Won | ||
| Best Screenplay | Thomas Bidegain and Bertrand Bonello | Nominated | ||
| Best Cinematography | Josée Deshaies | Nominated | ||
| Magritte Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Jérémie Renier | Won | |
| Satellite Awards | Best Costume Design | Anaïs Romand | Nominated | |
| International Cinephile Society Awards | Best Actor | Gaspard Ulliel | Won | |
| Best Supporting Actor | Helmut Berger | Nominated | ||
| Best Production Design | Katia Wyszkop | Nominated |
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