“Bertrand Bonello’s glossily intuitive vision of the life of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent is pure haute couture. The result does a better job than its predecessor of celebrating Saint Laurent’s flamboyant artistry.
“Bonello’s film covers less chronological ground than 'Yves Saint Laurent' but goes a little harder on the hedonism. Bonello’s script focuses less on Saint Laurent’s troubled romance with life partner Pierre Berge than on his individual neuroses, insecurities and delusions. As such, it’s a less flattering portrait, with machete-cheekboned Gaspard Ulliel an aloof, glassy presence throughout. The upside for Saint Laurent’s admirers is that Bonello’s film reflects more of the designer’s tortured creative drive in its dark onyx surfaces; it’s the slightly deranged auteur portrait that a fellow artist and iconoclast deserves.
“Entirely skipping past Saint Laurent’s youth, and his early apprenticeship with Christian Dior, the film instead begins with the designer at the zenith of his celebrity — coinciding, unsurprisingly enough, with his emotional and spiritual nadir. Like 'Yves Saint Laurent,' Bonello’s film chooses to omit the 1980s and 1990s, similarly climaxing with the triumphant creative comeback of his Moroccan-inspired 1976 collection.
“The clothes are obviously the prize contribution here, with Anais Romand’s wardrobe all the more impressive considering the absence of the YSL house’s blessing. Every garment here is covetable, from Saint Laurent’s own loudly natty tailoring to the iridescent jewel tones of his Marrakech-chic gowns to a simple shift dress created in his studio that he deems 'as short, neat and precise as a gesture.' Not one word that description applies to Bonello’s film, but Yves Saint Laurent also knew as well as anyone where excess was required.” - Variety
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