Yves St Laurent:Special Collectors Ed

Though he splashed Dior with a stunning debut, he nevertheless, suffered a nervous stumbling block and wound up in a psychiatric hospital. But he returned, ever stronger, in 1962 when he created the house of YSL. Inexorably linked to French goddess Catherine Denueve (think of those clothes in Luis Bunuel's Bell de Jour) and the sexually free androgyny of '60s style, Laurent created clothes of masculine/feminine sensuality. The first female smoking jacket, pantsuit and safari jacket are all attributed to Laurent. Not to mention the popular Mao collar and exotic, flowing gowns with a Russian influence.

Through this you'll see archival clips and photos of beautiful designs and pictures (the best by the late great Helmut Newton) as well as very--for lack of a better term--French interview subjects discussing their lives with Laurent. Skimming some darker aspects of the master's persona and life, the trip is nevertheless absorbing, especially for the die-hard fashionista. You really do understand how difficult it is for current designers to live up to the marks Laurent imprinted—who could ever invent a Tuxedo suit for women again?

The second documentary, Yves Saint Laurent: 5, Avenue Marceau, 75116 Paris, uses a more direct approach by observing the designer at work. In this rare and intimate look, we watch the three month creation of Laurent's final season (Winter 2001) in a house bedecked with fabric, his drawings and his crew—sewing his designs on the living model who will waltz in for the master's approval. Sitting back with his Boston terrier happily chewing on a toy, the chain smoking fashion icon occasionally stands to adjust, alter or praise a garment. You'll have to be a hard core fashion maven to enjoy over an hour of these inner workings, but if you are, the document is both absorbing and oddly comforting. And again, it is like a dream—especially when Catherine Deneuve is filmed trying on various items in the dressing room, picking her favorite suits and dresses and chatting about, of all things, her hens.

The DVD:

Video:

Empire Pictures presents Yves Saint Laurent: Collector's Edition in Widescreen Anamorphic (1.78.:1). The transfer of this video-shot picture is handsome (very important when showing so much fashion and archival footage) giving off an especially warm tone when inside Laurent's palatial fashion house. And the black and white photos and interviews are clean—surprisingly well preserved. But then, some of these people are the kind who actually put their designer purses in dust bags every night.

Sound:

The audio comes in French Dolby Digital 2.0 with English subtitles. The sound is crisp and resounding—you will have no troubled hearing sometimes, the hushed, almost shy tone of Laurent's voice.

Extras:

If you include the second documentary, Yves Saint Laurent: 5, Avenue Marceau, 75116 as an extra than this is a stocked special edition. Two films in one. The other extras include trailers.

Final Thoughts:

Though privileged and private, both picture reveal and exude Laurent's once enfant terrible persona with a romantic, often fragile disposition. He's a study in contradictions—grandiose and yet hateful of the bourgeois and the snobbery of the rich. And like his favorite writer Proust, you really do feel like you've entered a moment of time lost, time regained