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| Pierre Niney and Marrie-Pierre Huster (The Weinstein Company) |
Yves Saint Laurent
is an excessively-melodramatic, creatively-misguided mess. This glossy,
overstuffed biopic of the famed fashion designer wants to be too many things –
an exploration of sexuality, of fame, of youth, of fashion, and, distressingly, much more – and, so, nothing really sticks. Director Jalil Lespert, for instance, settles on a
strange balance in depicting Yves’ homosexuality; it’s heavily integrated but
rarely beyond the surface, and so on-screen sex in Yves comes off as both indulgent and timid. Lespert succumbs to the
classic biopic problem of covering too much ground with too little analysis –
particularly of Yves' actual fashion work, which the director fails to adequately evoke – and a bizarre mix of operatic drama and incisive character study makes the whole thing
feel seriously nonsensical. As disastrous as these elements may be, Pierre Niney
is pretty great in the title role, and handles Lespert’s five or six (or more) versions
of Yves with impressive versatility. C-