Words: Violet
Pierre Niney wearing Saint Laurent suit and Montblanc Star Classique Automatic timepiece
Last Friday saw the UK release of Yves Saint Laurent, the biopic of the iconic French fashion designer. The film spans most of his working life, from his teenage years interning at Christian Dior right through to his most famed years at the top of his professional game as a world-renowned fashion designer. Brilliantly, Yves Saint Laurent is so much more than just a film about fashion, it is about the complex relationship between himself and his life partner, Pierre Bergé [played by Guillaume Gallienne]. Star of the film, upcoming French actor Pierre Niney, has been widely praised for his intimate and passionate depiction of the icon. We sat down with Niney to discuss his style, the film and what he thinks it means to be a gentleman today.
PIERRE NINEY – THE MAN HIMSELF, Talk us through your personal style., I’m always changing, I love street culture. I’m really into sneakers. And ever since I’ve done this movie, I’ve learnt a lot about fashion and a lot about beautiful suits and dresses. I love, Dior and Hedi Slimane suits. And with watches, I love Montblanc. I am wearing Montblanc and my grandfather used to have a Montblanc pen. I always thought it was really like my grandfather; really elegant, really discreet. I like this mix and I feel in Montblanc’s watch, there is something like that.
Style Icons?, Not really. That’s the thing, I like to steal things from people I see… When I was a teenager I really loved the Arctic Monkeys and The Kooks style but I don’t wear the skinny fit jeans!
What do you do for fun?, I am travelling a lot. I love Australia. I went to Australia straight after the shooting of Yves Saint Laurent to really disconnect and get back to myself. It took about 2 months and for that Australia is really good.
What do you think it means to be a gentleman in today’s world?, I should ask you the question I mean we are in London, right? I’ve learned a lot because I had a girlfriend [in London] and so I was always coming here. There is something really… Yesterday, we took a cab here and a friend of mine asked something to the driver, and he said, “I don’t know love”. I love that in London, calling people “darling” and “love”. For me, it’s the definition of elegance in everyday life, you feel good immediately. I don’t have one definition, it is all these small things that I like in people, but I like the idea of elegance in the street, at every level, whatever your social class. It’s hard to describe the elegance but I like the definition, never complain, never explain.
THE FILM – YVES SAINT LAURENT
Can you talk us through the process of how you were cast in the role?
One day Jalil Lespert [the director] called me and he asked me to join him to drink a beer in the bar. He told me, “I want to tell one of the most beautiful love stories and creation stories of our century. It’s the story of Yves Saint Laurent, I want you to play Yves Saint Laurent.” I didn’t know a lot about Yves at this moment so I started to do a little bit of research realised he was a really beautiful, complex, iconic and mysterious character. I loved it and I said yes, obviously.
How did the fact that he is such a public, historical and influential name (yet many people do not know the intimate side of him) affect how you prepared for the role?, I tried not to think about that. I wanted to dive into the work and not think about the pressure and the fears, that’s the way I do theatre and cinema. I’ve always done that. The character was too beautiful to be true, I didn’t want to miss anything. I knew I needed time to refine it, spend time in his skin before being on the set and, on the set, not doing imitation but being really free with the character. This is why I worked with three coaches for 5 months. It helped a lot; the stylist, the person who helped me with the drawings, they give you confidence helping it to become natural. I needed to feel like I knew him the best on the set. That’s why talking to his best friends was really important, especially Betty Catroux, one of his muses. She was really helpful because she would talk about everything; drugs, partying, sex, everything that happened behind closed doors.
He is not only one of the most recognisable names in the world, but he is a very complex character. What challenges did you come across?, There were three big challenges. First, the fact that I was supposed to play a manic depressive. He had it since he was 22-years old, it had a huge impact on his life. The second thing was the fact that I was supposed to get older in the movie, from around 18-46 years old and the third was not to lose the link between all the faces of the character. He is changing so much from the little boy at the beginning of the movie, then the hippies in the 70s with the long beard and the long hair and then older again.
What was it like working under the direction of Jalil? How did his directorial style work for the film and how is it translated in the final cut?, He’s really instinctive, really animal. He’s an actor before he’s a director I can tell you that. When we were preparing the scene in the morning he was coming with us and we were a real trio. It was a really actor laboratory.
Jalil made the choice to shoot in real locations and with real clothes – how did this effect/help your performance?, Yeah, it helped a lot, it was really priceless. They took the dresses out of the cold rooms and museums just for the one day of shooting, and they never do that.. for anything. We were putting a mark in history, showing a piece of history in a fictional movie. The most impressive [location] was the studio. When we started the shooting, I had the wig, the glasses, his real pen, his real draft, the real desk, his real walking stick.
Was that intimidating?, Something magical happened, the last dog of Yves Saint Laurent is still alive. And when we were shooting [the dog isn’t in the film], he came and lied down at my feet. When they tried to take him away he kept coming back and lying down. They told me that’s the first time he has done that since Yves Saint Laurent’s death. So there was a physical marrying. It was beyond us, it was bigger than us suddenly.
We know that Pierre Bergé was somewhat present in the making of this film. How important was it that he liked it and did you feel any pressure having him there?, He’s a really elegant, smart man so he knew we weren’t doing a movie for him, we were doing a movie for a wide audience and for cinema. At the same time it was priceless to have his help but he never interfered in any artistic way, he never said anything about the script, he never changed anything, he was just open to talk to us if we wanted and he gave us everything.
Why do you think it was important to make this film?, Yves Saint Laurent died not so long ago and I think we are now realizing the masterpiece that he left us. How he changed the history of fashion and the history of women, he gave them freedom and power. Yves was also someone who’s really smart and lucid, he had a really violent vision of everyday life, people, everything. But he always found a way to transform his pain and unhappiness into something new and into his creations. I think that’s the beautiful message of the movie.
Yves Saint Laurent is in cinemas nationwide now.
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