Yves Saint Laurent
An old fashioned double feature, pun intended: YVES SAINT LAURENT: HIS LIFE AND TIMES and YVES SAINT LAURENT: 5 AVENUE MARCEAU are two complementary documentaries which examine the life and career of the designer Yves Saint Laurent. Haute couture -- original designs painstakingly created from the finest fabrics -- once comprised a sizable though exclusive and expensive portion of the fashion industry. Increasingly replaced by ready-to-wear lines, only a handful of couture houses remain. When designer Yves Saint Laurent announced his retirement in 2002, it marked a true end to the era. In YSL: 5 AVENUE MARCEAU, filmmaker David Teboul uses his unprecedented access to capture the famed designer as he completes one of his final collections.
YSL: 5 AVENUE MARCEAU serves as a companion to Teboul's YSL: HIS LIFE AND TIMES, which provides an in-depth biography of the designer. Teboul uses cinéma vérité to capture his subjects without narration and illustrates the unique mixture of free-spirited group commentary and methodic production that helps to create a St. Laurent season. Teboul's spare visual narrative as he moves viewers from sketch to model fitting places primary attention on the design process. As he expounds on the beauty of the clothing and the models, what becomes most clear is Saint Laurent's love for his craft and the people who help bring his designs to life. Ultimately, the films are testaments to Saint Laurent's genius and the indelible mark he left on a fickle business. In addition to interviews with Saint Laurent, the films feature appearances by Catherine Deneuve, St. Laurent's constant muse Loulou de la Falaise and model Laetetia Casta.
On YSL: 5 AVENUE MARCEAU:
"There are family photos, interviews with colleagues, newsreels of early shows, a chat with his mother and vintage interviews with an unbelievably young and sexy YSL . . . enlightening and enjoyable." ~ V.A. Musetto, the New York Post.
A "visual tone poem . . . the picture is wrapped in a haze of melancholy, as if we're watching a swath of history -- the history of couture, specifically -- winding slowly away from us." ~ Stephanie Zacharek, salon.com
"This is a tender and engaging portrait of a marvelously elusive personality, whose style remains timeless . . . a family feeling pervades this intimate documentary, which follows three months of creation for a single season's collection (Winter 2001), from the first drawings to the last finished garment." ~ Leslie Camhi, the Village Voice.