New Yves Saint-Laurent documentary screens in Berlin
February 16th, 2007 by Zsofia
For 40 years, Yves Saint-Laurent reigned as one of the most influential fashion designers of our times. However, the controversial documentary “Celebration” tells an unexpected and disturbing version of the truth about the man and his psyche.
In the film, Yves Saint-Laurent is portrayed as a man troubled by his demons and manipulated by his helpers and associates. “He will never be rid of his demons, never be happy, and so much the better. He is like a sleepwalker and we must not wake him up. I set in place all the right conditions to keep him in this trance,” says Pierre Berge, Saint-Laurent’s former lover and business associate, in the film.
Directed by Olivier Meyrou, the documentary was originally intended as a record of the master at work on his final collection, but it gradually turned into a more intimate potrait - one whose degree of “interference” into the life of the designer had serious consequences for the film and its maker.
After the film was completed in 2001, Pierre Berge went to a French court and won a verdict which ordered the director to pay a fine, and prevented the film’s commercial distribution in France. The documentary had been in the drawer ever since, waiting for its international debut - which happened at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this week.
