L'Amour Fou art

I'm crazy about the opening and closing titles for the film "L'Amour Fou" as illustrated by Aurore Giscard d'Estaing after Yves Saint Laurent's own designs.










What did I think about the actual film? Well, it was interesting to see how much of a toll being in the background can take on a person. Pierre Bergé, partner in love and business with Yves Saint Laurent for 50 years certainly loved his husband, but the film painted a dark portrait of Saint Laurent as someone difficult to love and live with. In one part, Bergé says that he only saw Saint Laurent happy twice a year: at the close of his runway shows each year. Within 24 hours of the end of applause, Saint Laurent would descended into a deep, deep depression. Perhaps it's not surprising that Bergé would want to sell the artwork they'd acquired together over the years, that they did not bring good memories, instead a reminder of a bittersweet life. Who knows. For his part, Bergé seems quintessentially French: stiff, reserved, formal, unsentimental. Not really a fuzzy bear to come home to.

Yet, I thought about how much of Bergé's own ambition was set aside in order to facilitate the life and business of the manic artist. Another casualty, it seems of Saint Laurent was his "muse" Loulou de la Falaise who the Guardian called "a fixer, friend and supportive shoulder to" Saint Laurent, but, given other circumstances could have had her own fashion empire without living in the shadows.

Ahhh, fashion. It's really not so glamorous underneath it all.