''Saint Laurent'' is a 2014 French

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

co-written and directed by

Bertrand Bonello Bertrand Bonello (; born 11 September 1968) is a French film director, screenwriter, producer and composer. His background is in classical music, and he lives between Paris and Montreal. His work has also been associated with the New French Extre ...

, and starring

Gaspard Ulliel Gaspard Thomas Ulliel (; 25 November 198419 January 2022) was a French actor. He was known for having portrayed the young Hannibal Lecter in ''Hannibal Rising'' (2007), fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent in the biopic '' Saint Laurent'' (2014 ...

as Yves Saint Laurent,

Jérémie Renier (; born 6 January 1981) is a Belgian actor. His film debut was in the critically praised (1996), directed by the Dardenne brothers. He became better known to worldwide audiences in ''Brotherhood of the Wolf'' (2001) and (2005). The latter ...

Pierre Bergé Pierre Vital Georges Bergé (; 14 November 1930 – 8 September 2017) was a French industrialist and patron. He co-founded the fashion label Yves Saint Laurent, and was a longtime business partner (and onetime life partner) of its namesake des ...

, and

Louis Garrel Louis Garrel (born 14 June 1983) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his starring role in '' The Dreamers'', directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

as Jacques de Bascher. The supporting cast features

Léa Seydoux Léa Hélène Seydoux-Fornier de Clausonne (; born 1 July 1985) is a French actor. Known for her roles in both French cinema and in Hollywood she's received various accolades including the Cannes Film Festival's Trophée Chopard in 2009 as wel ...

Amira Casar Amira Casar is a British-born actress who grew up in England, Ireland, and France. Early life Amira is the daughter of a Kurdish father and a Russian mother. She was born in London and was subsequently raised in England, Ireland, and France. Sh ...

, Aymeline Valade, and

Helmut Berger Helmut Berger (; born Helmut Steinberger; 29 May 1944) is an Austrian actor, known for his portrayal of narcissistic and sexually-ambiguous characters. He was one of the stars of the European cinema in the late 1960s and 1970s, and is regarded a ...

. 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. The film competed for the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and was released on 24 September 2014. It was selected as the French entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the

87th Academy Awards The 87th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2014 and took place on February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 ...

, but was not nominated. In January 2015, ''Saint Laurent'' received ten César Award nominations, including

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor. It also received five nominations at the

20th Lumières Awards The 20th Lumières Awards ceremony, presented by the Académie des Lumières, was held on 2 February 2015, at the Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris. Nominations were announced on 12 January 2015. '' Saint Laurent'' garnered the most nominations with a ...

, winning Best Actor for Gaspard Ulliel.

Plot

The film tells the story of the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent at the peak of his career between 1967 and 1976.

Cast

as Yves Saint Laurent **

as Yves Saint Laurent in 1989 *

Louis Garrel Louis Garrel (born 14 June 1983) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his starring role in '' The Dreamers'', directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

as Jacques de Bascher *

Loulou de la Falaise Louise Vava Lucia Henriette Le Bailly de La Falaise (; 4 May 1947 – 5 November 2011), known as Loulou de la Falaise, was an English fashion muse and accessory and jewellery designer associated with Yves Saint Laurent. Author Judith Thurman ...

as Anne-Marie Munoz *

Aymeline Valade Aymeline Valade (born 17 October 1984) is a French supermodel and actress. Early life Born in Montpellier, Valade grew up in Lyon, Paris and Nice. Valade learned to read at the age of 11 and learned how to skate. Valade was first noticed by an ...

as Betty Catroux *

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, also written Bruni-Tedeschi (; born 16 November 1964), is an Italian-French actress, screenwriter and film director. Her 2013 film, '' A Castle in Italy,'' was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festiva ...

as Madame Duzer * Micha Lescot as Monsieur Jean-Pierre *

Jasmine Trinca Jasmine Trinca (; born 24 April 1981) is an Italian actress. Trinca was born in Rome, Italy. She began her career in 2001, chosen by Nanni Moretti for his award-winning '' The Son's Room'', receiving the Guglielmo Biraghi prize as Best New Tale ...

Talitha Getty Talitha Dina Getty (; 18 October 1940 – 11 July 1971) was a Dutch actress, socialite, and model who was regarded as a style icon of the late 1960s. She lived much of her adult life in Britain and, in her final years, was closely associated w ...

Valérie Donzelli Valérie Donzelli (born 2 March 1973) is a French actress, filmmaker and screenwriter. She has directed five feature films and two short films since 2008, including the film ''Declaration of War'' (2011). Early life Valérie Donzelli was born ...

as Renée *

Dominique Sanda Dominique Marie-Françoise Renée Varaigne (born 11 March 1951), professionally known as Dominique Sanda, is a French actress and former fashion model. Life and career Sanda was born in Paris, to Lucienne (née Pichon) and Gérard Varaigne. She ...

as Lucienne

Production

The shooting of ''Saint Laurent'' began on 30 September 2013.

Release

The film was originally scheduled to be released on 14 May 2014. In January 2014 the studio announced the release was pushed back to 1 October 2014. The release date was later changed to 24 September 2014. In May 2014,

Sony Pictures Classics Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom. It distributes, produce ...

acquired the North American rights at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered in competition. The film was also screened at the 52nd

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, i ...

in September 2014. In May 2015, the film opened in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles to a $36,136 opening weekend.

Reception

Critical reception

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website

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, the film has an approval rating of 60% based on 85 reviews, and an average rating of 5.78/10. The website's 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." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score 52 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Susan Wloszczyna of '' RogerEbert.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." A. O. Scott of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' described it as "a compulsively detailed swirl of moods and impressions, intent on capturing the contradictions of the man and his times."

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Laurent 2014 films 2014 biographical drama films 2014 LGBT-related films 2014 multilingual films 2010s English-language films 2010s French films 2010s French-language films Biographical films about LGBT people English-language French films EuropaCorp films Films about fashion designers Films about fashion in France Films directed by Bertrand Bonello Films featuring a Best Actor Lumières Award-winning performance Films set in the 1960s Films set in the 1970s Films shot in Paris Films with screenplays by Bertrand Bonello Films with screenplays by Thomas Bidegain French biographical drama films French LGBT-related films French multilingual films LGBT-related drama films Yves Saint Laurent (brand) Cultural depictions of French men