Jalil Lespert’s film treats its hero with a high seriousness that not even Niney’s uncanny portrayal of YSL’s artistry and mental fragility can justify.
Yves Saint Laurent
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France, Belgium · 2014
Rated R · 1h 46m
Director Jalil Lespert
Starring Pierre Niney, Guillaume Gallienne, Nikolai Kinski, Charlotte Le Bon
Genre Drama
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
This film examines the life and career of legendary fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, from his childhood in French Algeria to the beginning of his career to his relationship with his lover and business partner Pierre Bergé. As critics and other designers doubt him, Yves leans into the avant-garde and creates an extraordinary fashion empire for the ages.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
As elegant as the man's clothes, this handsome biopic traces 20 incident-filled years in the life of the designer.
The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij
Though the screenplay, based on Laurence Benaim’s biography, is all build-up and no payoff, there is just enough emotional insight to compensate for the lack of narrative fireworks in the last half-hour.
Time Out London by Cath Clarke
Sadly, this polite film, though touching in places, is so desperate not to offend, it’s the film equivalent of sensible shoes. Diehard fashionistas may disagree.
Slant Magazine by Clayton Dillard
For all of the supposed passion and anguish in Saint Laurent's clothing and relationships, Jalil Lespert consistently neglects to imbue the film with such a comparable level of ambition or desire.
Clothes make the man, but can’t save the film, in Yves Saint Laurent, in which the life of one of haute couture’s great innovators gets disappointingly by-the-numbers treatment.
Over the twenty-odd years the film covers, Saint Laurent is scene-by-scene depicted as a genius, a manic-depressive, a polyamorist, a drug taker, a mercurial friend, a partier and a terribly, terribly sensitive soul. He undoubtedly was all of these things and more, it's just a pity he doesn't also come across as a person.
With Yves Saint Laurent, Lespert has played it safe but stylish, and pulls it off thanks to some canny casting choices and a refreshing focus on mainstream appeal.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
The film's purpose is the reverent mystification of everything that avowedly makes YSL special.
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
Rather than do something freshly cinematic with Saint Laurent’s precise, elegant creations, the film is content to exhibit them.
Users who liked this film also liked
Coco Before Chanel
(Coco avant Chanel)
Before she was Coco, she was just a young girl in an orphanage, moonlighting as a cabaret singer.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2009
- Director Anne Fontaine
- Cast Audrey Tautou, Benoît Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola, Marie Gillain, Emmanuelle Devos, Régis Royer
- Genre Drama, History
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Tubi TV
Brideshead Revisited
An English middle-class youth becomes infatuated with an upper-class family.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, Italy, Morocco • 2008
- Director Julian Jarrold
- Cast Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Hayley Atwell, Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Patrick Malahide
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Hoopla
LOL (Laughing Out Loud)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2009
- Director Lisa Azuelos
- Cast Sophie Marceau, Christa Théret, Alexandre Astier, Jérémy Kapone, Marion Chabassol, Lou Lesage
- Genre Comedy
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, OVID, AMC+, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, VUDU Free, Hoopla
The Mystery of the Yellow Room
(Le Mystère de la chambre jaune)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Belgium, France • 2003
- Director Bruno Podalydès
- Cast Denis Podalydès, Jean-Noël Brouté, Claude Rich, Scali Delpeyrat, Sabine Azéma, Michael Lonsdale
- Genre Comedy, Crime, Mystery
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Wild Grass
(Les Herbes folles)
Marguerite loses her wallet, and it's found by Georges, a seemingly happy husband and father. But his curiosity evolves into obsession.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy • 2009
- Director Alain Resnais
- Cast André Dussollier, Sabine Azéma, Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny, Michel Vuillermoz
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Headwinds
(Des vents contraires)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2011
- Director Jalil Lespert
- Cast Benoît Magimel, Isabelle Carré, Antoine Duléry, Bouli Lanners, Marie-Ange Casta, Audrey Tautou
- Genre Drama, Mystery
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Bowling
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2012
- Director Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar
- Cast Catherine Frot, Mathilde Seigner, Firmine Richard, Laurence Arné, François Bureloup, Mathias Mlekuz
- Genre Comedy
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube
The Man Who Laughs
(L'Homme qui rit)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Czech Republic • 2012
- Director Jean-Pierre Améris
- Cast Gérard Depardieu, Marc-André Grondin, Emmanuelle Seigner, Christa Théret, Arben Bajraktaraj, Serge Merlin
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
It Boy
(20 ans d'écart)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2013
- Director David Moreau
- Cast Virginie Efira, Pierre Niney, Gilles Cohen, Amélie Glenn, Charles Berling, Michaël Abiteboul
- Genre Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Me, Myself and Mum
(Les Garçons et Guillaume, à Table !)
How to become a man when your mother and your closed circle have decided otherwise?
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2013
- Director Guillaume Gallienne
- Cast Guillaume Gallienne, Françoise Fabian, André Marcon, Diane Kruger, Nanou Garcia, Götz Otto
- Genre Comedy
- Available on Apple TV, Hoopla
Gerontophilia
Gerontophilia [jə-ˌrän-tō-ˈfil-ē-ə] noun - the love or sexual preference for the elderly.
- ✭ ✭
- Canada (Quebec) • 2013
- Director Bruce LaBruce
- Cast Pier-Gabriel Lajoie, Walter Borden, Katie Boland, Marie-Hélène Thibault, Nastassia Markiewicz, Marie Yardly Kavanagh
- Genre Comedy, Romance
- Available on Strand Releasing Amazon Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV
Saint Laurent
A portrait of the iconic French designer at the height of his popularity.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2014
- Director Bertrand Bonello
- Cast Gaspard Ulliel, Jérémie Renier, Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Amira Casar, Aymeline Valade
- Genre Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Fandango At Home
The Clearstream Affair
(L'Enquête)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Luxembourg, Belgium • 2015
- Director Vincent Garenq
- Cast Gilles Lellouche, Charles Berling, Laurent Capelluto, Florence Loiret Caille, Christian Kmiotek, Grégoire Bonnet
- Genre Thriller, Drama
- Available on OVID, Kanopy
A Perfect Man
(Un Homme idéal)
- ✭ ✭
- France • 2015
- Director Yann Gozlan
- Cast Pierre Niney, Ana Girardot, André Marcon, Valéria Cavalli, Thibault Vinçon, Marc Barbé
- Genre Drama, Thriller
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Odyssey
(L'Odyssée)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2016
- Director Jérôme Salle
- Cast Lambert Wilson, Pierre Niney, Audrey Tautou, Laurent Lucas, Benjamin Lavernhe, Vincent Heneine
- Genre Adventure, Drama
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, The Roku Channel, YouTube Free, Pluto TV, Freevee, Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
Arctic Heart
(Le secret des banquises)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2016
- Director Marie Madinier
- Cast Guillaume Canet, Charlotte Le Bon, Patrick d'Assumçao, Anne Le Ny, Damien Chapelle
- Genre Romance, Comedy, Drama, Science Fiction
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The (Silent) War
(Sordo)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Spain • 2019
- Director Alfonso Cortés-Cavanillas
- Cast Asier Etxeandia, Marian Álvarez, Hugo Silva, Aitor Luna, Olimpia Melinte, Imanol Arias
- Genre Drama, Thriller, War
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads
Breath of Life
(L'ordre des médecins)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2018
- Director David Roux
- Cast Jérémie Renier, Marthe Keller, Zita Hanrot, Maud Wyler, Alain Libolt, Fred Epaud
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.