Wild At Heart
Yves Saint Laurent was a famous French fashion designer and regarded as one of the most influential designers in recent times. He was an assistant to Christian Dior and eventually replaced him upon his death. After being let go from Dior, he went on to fame as an independent designer and beginning his long reign as a top designer. He was known for helping couture’s post-60’s rebirth, making ready-to-wear reputable, introducing tuxedo suits for women, acknowledging non-European cultures in his work and being the first designer to use ethnic models in his shows.
“L’Amour Fou” is a an uneven attempt to capture a bit of what his life was like using numerous photos and interviews with his business partner and lover Pierre Berge. The movie is bookended with scenes from the famous Christies auction of their extensive art collection. The movie moves on touching on his meeting celebrities (Warhol, Mick Jagger) and his dipping into moods of drugs and despair. Unfortunately, this makes the film sort of uneven. One wishes the director would have spent more time spinning tales of the art in his collection since that is what bookends the movie. Or maybe telling a more complete tale of his influence to the fashion industry and place it is an historic or stylistic manner. However the movie could have been organized, director Pierre Thoretton falls shy of making a film about Laurent that really appeals to those who don’t know anything about the world of designer clothes or Laurent.
After seeing some of his more unique styles, I would love to have more information on how to really look as the works as art like the paintings and sculptures in his collection. We don’t even have enough time to look at his three beautiful houses in in Paris, Normandy and Marrakech in any detail which would be nice (like those travel shows my dad watches on PBS). All said and done, the documentary isn’t terrible, but it doesn’t feel finished but when one had a Howard Hughes seeming life, maybe that is appropriate.
My grade is a C-.
The movie opens at Landmark’s Maple Art Theatre this Friday
