L’Amour Fou: Remembering Yves Saint Laurent
Yves Saint Laurent, 1961 rue Spontini. Photo by Pierre Boulat. From Pierre Thoretton’s L’AMOUR FOU, a Sundance Selects release.
As the title L’Amour Fou suggests, Pierre Thoretton’s film about the late great Yves Saint Laurent and his business and life partner Pierre Bergé isn’t merely a movie about fashion, but a film about an intense love affair that spanned over four decades and had fashion as its backdrop.
After setting out to make a documentary about the record-breaking $477 million sale of the couple’s art and furniture collection at Christie’s, the first-time director Thoretton found that the real story was the men behind the collection and the deep affection and connection they shared.
Opening with archival footage of Saint Laurent announcing his retirement from his boundary-breaking fashion career, the movie then skips to Bergé giving an emotional eulogy at his lover’s funeral in the summer of 2008. As the film goes on it continues to zig-zag, like memory itself, among exclusive peeks at the couple’s awe-inspiring properties in Paris, Normandy, and Marrakech, where Saint Laurent’s ashes are scattered; priceless backstage footage and obscure personal videos; scenes of the crew at Christie’s carefully studying, tagging, and dissembling the art collection; and revealing interviews with Betty Catroux, Loulou de la Falaise, and—more than anyone, of course—Pierre Bergé.
While Berge recounts their relationship, viewers also learn about the troubled side of the painfully shy Saint Laurent, including his drug and alcohol addiction and the manic-depressive behavior that often put the couple’s union in jeopardy.
Sure enough, the film delivers ample glimpses of glamour. But the story is ultimately about love and loss. It brings the icon of YSL (who would surely feel uncomfortable with a movie about himself, were he alive) down to a more relatable level, while hammering home the oft forgotten fact that money and fame don’t guarantee happiness. In fact, they can work against it.
Yves Saint Laurent & Pierre Bergé. Photo by Alice Springs. From Pierre Thoretton’s L’AMOUR FOU, a Sundance Selects release.
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