Product Description

Two feature documentaries about the man who re-imagined women’s fashion. His Life and Times is an intimate biography featuring extensive interviews with the reclusive designer. 5 Avenue Marceau 75116 Paris is a behind the scenes look inside Saint Laurent’s legendary atelier during the creation of his final Spring line. Together they form "a timeless portrait of an artist at work - a celebration of human endeavor." (Los Angeles Times)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3609 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-02-20
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 85 minutes

Amazon.com
Few would have guessed that Yves Saint Laurent idolized beatniks, and even secretly desired to become one. But already known for his impeccable taste and proper upbringing, the fashion designer was reticent to change too much from what brought him fame--haute couture. This latest DVD collection packages two documentaries, Yves Saint Laurent: His Life and Times and Yves Saint Laurent: 5 Avenue Marceau to give a thorough understanding of the soft-spoken designer who flourished for 40 years in the fashion industry, even when competing against fashionable upstarts such as Stella McCartney and Zac Posen. The first film concentrates on his early years while the latter focuses on the creation of his final Spring collection. While the less technically savvy film of the two (it's full of awkward editing, shaky footage, and background noise that sometimes interferes with the interviews), His Life and Times offers more content. Born in 1936, Saint Laurent had an eye for style from an early age (At age 3, he suggested his elderly great aunt change her frock, and she listened.) As a teenager, he won a fashion contest that inadvertently got him an interview with Christian Dior. By the age of 26, he opened his own house of couture. While his father never approved of his less-than-manly career choice, and never acknowledged his son's homosexuality, Saint Laurent remembers that his father's last words on his deathbed were, "Ou est Yves?" ("Where is Yves?"). Though he liked working directly with his staff, Saint Laurent had a distinct way of viewing his collections: Rather than looking directly at the models wearing his creations, he would look at their reflections in the mirror as they were walking toward it; for him, this was a more real way of seeing his clothes. Though both documentaries move at a slow pace--that matches Saint Laurent's shy and well-thought out manner of speech--they provide interesting insight on a fashion icon. --Jae-Ha Kim

From the Back Cover
For 40 years, YSL reigned as the 20th century's most influential and brilliantly inspired couturiers. His dramatic designs and conceptual innovations completely revolutionized women's fashions. The result is two new documentaries that reveal both the man and his work.

Yves Saint Laurent - His Life and Times: Follows his career, from the dazzling debut of his first line, under his own name at the age of 22, to becoming one of fashions most creative and unorthodox designers. (2003, 77 minutes, in French with English subtitles.)

Yves Saint Laurent - 5 Avenue Marcea: Director David Teboul was given virtually unlimited access to the behind-the-scenes production process of the creation of a new line from initial drawings all the way to the final climatic show. (2003, 85 minutes, in French with English subtitles.)

Customer Reviews

La Couture
The 2nd movie (5 Ave Marceau) is a behind-the-scenes look at the creation and development of YSL's 2001 spring-summer couture collection. For fans of the rarified world of haute couture, we get to see the design process from sketch to toile to final preparation of dresses with all the minute and perfectionist adjustments made to hems, linings, collars, flounces etc. YSL's regular house models are featured including the evergreen Amalia. His muse Loulou de la Falaise Klossowski and also Anne Marie Munoz are there by his side to give their opinions and support. For once we also get to see his chiefs of ateliers working out his sketches and trying to come up with creations that match what he dreams of. It's a hushed temple of design with everyone contributing to the final designs. We get to see how fabrics are draped and chosen, decisions on embroidery, how the style of the model's walk can affect the design, how some colours or fabrics are rejected and replaced; successful creations are paraded by the house models in front of YSL and others and greeted by cries of "ravishing", "beautiful!" and "sensational". I only wish that the 1hour plus movie was even longer. There's only a little snippet of the actual fashion show tacked onto the end of the movie but that's not really the point of the movie. The style of filming is slightly distanced - we observe the team observing the designs and sort of listen into their conversations. Totally recommended if you love couture and love YSL. In French with accurate English sub-titles.

For the Love of the Glamour.
Yves Saint Laurent is one of the greatest French fashion designers and his work has been raved and worned by fans worldwide. In this 2.5 hrs long documentary, we get to have more intimate look at the life and career of genius through the changes of more than 4 decades in the fashion world. With segments devoted to his fashion shows, and interviews on him as well as on others(influential fashion people) ultimately revealed more about the man behind the glamorous haute coutures.

It's very captivating to see how he became Dior's apprentice at 17 and when Dior died, he took over the job at the age of 21, with a debut show that dazzled the world. Eventually, he resigned from Dior, and just when everyone thought he was making a mistake, he launched his own label and started a smaller couture house of his own, and the result was astonishing as his first YSL collection became a hit. His work was especially adorned by divas like Catherine Deneuve, and even Jackie O.

I especially enjoyed watching him talk about himself in terms of family, love, career, and creativity. "I never plan what I draw, it just comes to me, and I have no vision of it". is one of the more interesting things I learned about him. He also openly talked about his passion for couture and resends ready-to-wear. He loved Chanel and Piccaso, and Balenciaga. He preferred Black models, because the colours of the dresses looked better on them and they have fabulous bodies......

The first part of the movie is finished at halfway, and followed by a complete domcumentary on behind the scenes of the preparation of a collection; from illustration to fabrics, toile fittings, to fancy embriodery work, to final fitting. He sits in a room, while his team makes his dream(designs) come true, and they have a model wearing the newly finished piece to let him critique the work. The head of his assistant would say,"Merci Monsieur!" if it turned out to be the way he imagined it.....

The second part is probably more interesting and worthwhile watching if you are into studying fashion, otherwise you might find it somewhat long and slow to watch the fittings and sewings take place. Well, at least you'll understand why couture is outlandishly expensive.

It's best to learn from the BEST
Having been in the fashion world for more than two decades, this DVD is the best example of what the Couture World is all about, perhaps a vanishing art but Yves was one of the last great real couture designers and this movie demonstrates that to the best ability. For anyone interested in Fashion and art in general, this is perhaps one of the most interesting documents on how the true couture work, men and women with true dedication to the art of drapping and hand work that produces the small miracles in beadwork, and all elements that made a couture garment different from any other. True understanding of the way a dress should look and how it flows like air. I recommend it highly to anyone going into the fashion world or already in the fashion world.