Yves St Laurent

If Hollywood makes a YSL bioepic soon, an obvious choice for lead actor would be Crispin Glover, the unforgettably gangly George McFly from the first Back to the Future. The intensely nervous shyly-smiling French couturier resembles McFly in Yves St Laurent: his life and times, one of two 2002 documentaries about him written and directed by then-unknown David Teboul.

The pair of insider stories was clearly produced with the full cooperation of YSL, his business and ex-marital partner Pierre Berge, and some of their fashion house personnel and close friends (such as actress Catherine Deneuve and socialite Betty Catroux). It would not be too cynical to assume that the circumspect 75-minute overview of YSL's life and 60-minute inside glimpses of his fashion house were PR efforts and pre-retirement commemorative archives.

It helps an audience if it can jump to the appropriate conclusions about matters that are only referred to obliquely, including YSL's domineering mother and his electricity-shocked spell in a mental hospital, cocaine addiction (one of "naughty things" YSL admits to impishly), wild nightclubbing in Paris and NY, sexual separation from Berge, and YSL's home in Marrakesh.

Some omitted facts are odd: why no mention of the US millionaire who was a key backer of YSL's solo venture in 1962? Or YSL's successful legal action for wrongful dismissal by the owner of the Dior house? The subsequent takeover (rescue? sell-out? opportunistic deal?) of YSL by the conglomerate owning Gucci also needed attention, as did its use of Gucci's Tom Ford as YSL's creative director.

It's understandable that Berge's conviction and fine for insider trading in 1996, for suspiciously timely sales of YSL stock, is not mentioned, but Berge himself reveals the gossipy news that he had been in a relationship with painter Bernard Buffet for eight years before he was introduced to YSL in 1958. Gratuitous as well as gossipy: Berge doesn't add the news that Buffet married a writer-actress in December the same year and had three children.

A fuller account of YSL's relationship with Berge (from the viewpoint of Berge, who was still alive in 2010 at the age of 79), and the multi-million-euro auction of their joint art collection in 2008, has been told by another French documentary-maker (L'amour fou). It was screened at the 2010 Toronto film festival, won an award there, and should be worth looking out for.

In Teboul's earlier movies, key threads more than justify the severe trimming of YSL's real life and times. Above all else, the designer's sketches and finished clothes illustrate the remarkable four-decades-long career of an artist of both haute couture and pret-a-porter. YSL explains, succinctly and disarmingly honestly, that he was great but that the only true master couturiers were Balenciaga and Chanel. He was approaching their level, he believed, but it is clear from the interview sessions that YSL, haggard and hesitant, slow-thinking and addicted to cigarettes, was close to death at the start of the 21st century. He died of brain cancer in 2008.

One fascinating counterpoint for fashion buffs to watch is Valentino : The Last Emperor. A similar saga of the fashion world's pampered pets, superegos and business-minded lovers, that "official" documentary reveals a central character who was more joyous, self-loving and flamboyant but, I'd guess, much less talented as a leading figure of fashion.