Film Review - Celebration, Yves Saint Laurent: The Final Collections (2019)

Fly-on-the-wall style filming is perhaps one of the best ways to capture a great mind at work, just as Olivier Meyrou does in his 2007 documentary Celebration. In a similar style to D. A. Pennebaker’s 1967 film Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back, Meyrou takes an observational approach to screen grabbing the final years of Yves Saint Laurent’s life. The idiosyncratic and famously brooding fashion designer is considered to be a pioneering artist of the 20^th century – but here, Meyrou offers a more intimate view of the man behind the name.

Filmed over a span of three years, Celebration candidly presents Laurent as he prepares for his final show. Or rather – Pierre Bergé does, co-founder of the YSL brand. Laurent himself, now in his sixties, is exposed as a fragile yet hardworking artist, clearly under mental and physical strain. A perpetually lit cigarette fogs the lens, while Bergé orders around staff members and a toasts to the man who sacrificed so much for his career. Meyrou – as is the nature of the observational documentary – provides little context or explanation for what we see. Instead, a saddened portrait is presented, marking the end of an era for fashion.

Initially released in 2007 but withdrawn by YSL until 2019, Celebration harbours that rustic, home-movie quality of films from the 90s. With the rise of fast fashion, this could very well be one of the last examples of seamstresses and designers’ hand-crafting such lavish dresses. Garments and models saturate the screen in a grainy aesthetic, overlaid with some heartfelt commentaries on the price paid for creativity. As Bergé says: “At first, you create from nothing. Then little by little…things become more complicated. At that point you can’t do without anything.”

Yves Saint Laurent: The Last Collections was reportedly the inspiration behind Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2017 drama Phantom Thread. Though Laurent is surely captured as a quiet, determined genius in Celebration, the drive and almost manipulative methods of working depicted in Phantom Thread is more closely aligned with that of Bergé. Celebration pays close attention to the everyday details of Laurent’s life and relationships, navigating his palace-like home with the help of assertive workers, treading Laurent’s ground like as if it were holy. Although the iconic designer appears somewhat frail and lost in the film, Meyrou manages to beautifully capture that wholesome twinkle in his eye when seeing his creations come to life.

Celebration is a private and insightful behind-the-scenes look into the high-end fashion industry, introspective of Laurent as a secluded artist at the end of his career. Switching between black-and-white and colour, Celebration is licked with creative flair to subsidize its candid style of filmmaking. For anyone with in interest in fashion or film – it’s worth a watch.