Directed by Bertrand Bonello, written with Thomas Bidegain, and starring Gaspard Ulliel, Jérémie Renier, Louis Garrel, Léa Seydoux, Amira Casar, Helmut Berger, and Aymeline Valade, Saint Laurent is a biopic that blends drama and romance, focusing on a decade in the life of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. Released in French theaters on September 24, 2014, and selected for official competition at the Cannes Film Festival, the film arrives on Disney+ on December 26, 2025, offering a new window of distribution for this highly aesthetic reinterpretation of the legend of French couture.
Rather than retracing an entire life, Saint Laurent focuses on the period from 1967 to 1976, a pivotal moment when the designer, already at the height of his fame, faced a decade marked by sexual liberation, nocturnal excesses, and cultural change. The film follows an artist at work, caught between inspiration, high standards, and fragility, showing behind-the-scenes footage of collections, workshops, and fashion shows, as well as his intimate relationships with Pierre Bergé, his friends, lovers, and muses.
This decade is described as a face-off between a designer and his era, where each new collection becomes an act of artistic survival as much as a fashion statement. The film emphasizes the personal and psychological cost of a name that has become a brand, between parties, addictions, media pressure, and creative demands. Without giving away any spoilers, the film follows the rise of the Saint Laurent myth while allowing fatigue, doubt, and a sense of vertigo to surface in the face of a success that sometimes seems to escape its creator.
The project was born shortly after L'Apollonide – Memories of a Brothel, when producers Eric and Nicolas Altmayer suggested to Bertrand Bonello that he tackle Yves Saint Laurent. The filmmaker agreed on the condition that he move away from an academic biopic in favor of a highly visual, romantic, and deliberately Visconti-esque cinematic approach. He teamed up with screenwriter Thomas Bidegain and chose to focus the plot on a particularly eventful decade, punctuated by iconic collections such as "Libération" (1971) and "Ballet russe" (1976), recreated for the film without access to the archives of the Bergé Saint Laurent Foundation.
The feature film is part of a "biopic clash": a few months earlier, Jalil Lespert's film, starring Pierre Niney, had received the support of Pierre Bergé and the couturier's official entourage. Bertrand Bonello's film takes a different approach, focusing on emotion, the cost of being Saint Laurent, and the dark side of a glamorous and creative life. Contested by Pierre Bergé and produced without the support of the foundation, the film stands out for its freedom of tone and confident aesthetic, drawing on references ranging from Visconti to Scorsese and Bresson. It went on to receive widespread recognition from critics and professionals, notably at the César Awards, the Lumières Awards for foreign press, and the Magritte Awards.
Filming took place mainly in a Parisian mansion transformed into a studio, where Rue de Babylone, workshops, apartments, and backstage areas for fashion shows were recreated. Costume designer Anaïs Romand orchestrated a meticulous reconstruction, while Gaspard Ulliel underwent a significant physical and vocal transformation to approximate the couturier's silhouette, diction, and fragility. The cast also includes regulars from Bonello's universe, such as Jasmine Trinca and Léa Seydoux, and invites Helmut Berger to play an aging Saint Laurent, in a direct echo of Visconti's cinema.
Our opinion on the film:
Sublime. We adore Bertrand Bonello, whose last film, House of Tolerance, left a lasting impression on us. Saint Laurent is a biopic: for a great artist like Bonello, it seems almost a shame to have to restrict himself to a story that has already been written and is well known to the public.
However, he tackles the task with his own talent and aesthetic, giving it a very particular vision marked by his signature style . His images are like moving paintings, sparkling with a thousand lights and a thousand colors. The actors are at the height of their beauty: the kissing scene between Gaspard Ulliel and Louis Garrel is unforgettably sensual... We tremble with eroticism, dazzled by the beauty, the casting, and the choice of soundtrack.
Bertrand Bonello gives us a glimpse of the decadence, addictions, and regressive pleasures of the 1970s. Leading to decline but also to the most violent and purest art of living, partying is what made Yves Saint Laurent an ambivalent legend, whose nuances are perfectly rendered by the director. Both equally great, Bertrand Bonello and Yves Saint Laurent face each other, stimulate each other, to form an exceptional aesthetic story.
In essence, Saint Laurent focuses on portraying a man already at the top of his game, rather than recounting his rise to fame. The film's structure, divided into several stages—the "young man," the "star," and then the figure who became a brand—shifts back and forth between the glitz of the catwalk and the darkness of the backstage. The direction uses ellipses, voice-overs, variations in rhythm, and sometimes split screens to convey the coexistence of meticulous work, celebration, and melancholy. The result is somewhere between a biopic, an artist's film, and a great contemporary melodrama.
Visually, the film appeals as much to fashion lovers as to film buffs drawn to atmospheric, sensory cinema. Viewers who appreciate great portraits of artists, 1970s frescoes, and works where form matches subject matter will find here a world reminiscent of certain evocations of the star system by Scorsese, mixed with a stylization inherited from Visconti. Its release on Disney+ allows a wider audience to discover this unique biopic, which is the antithesis of a purely illustrative approach and is carried by a remarkable performance from Gaspard Ulliel.
Saint Laurent
Film | 2014
Theatrical release: September 24, 2014
On Disney+ December 26, 2025
Biopic, drama, romance | Running time: 2 hours 37 minutes
By Bertrand Bonello | Starring Gaspard Ulliel, Jérémie Renier, Léa Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Amira Casar, Helmut Berger, Aymeline Valade
Nationality: France
By retracing ten decisive years in the life of Yves Saint Laurent through a highly composed mise-en-scène, Saint Laurent offers a sensitive and stylized look at creation, desire, fatigue, and the making of a legend. Its availability on Disney+ offers an opportunity to rediscover a film that questions what it means to "be Saint Laurent," between the demands of haute couture and the vertigo of a rapidly changing era.
To go further, check out our selection of new Disney+ releases for December, our guide to streaming releases across all platforms, and today's selection of What to Watch Today on Streaming.
