Saint Laurent's art in 'L'Amour Fou'

Anyone who has lived anywhere more personal than a hotel room can relate to Pierre Thoretton's "L'Amour Fou," an elegant testimonial to the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, told through the reminiscence of his longtime business / life partner, Pierre Berge. Following Saint Laurent's death in 2008, Berge decided to sell off the museum-quality art collection the two men had amassed over their 50 years together; the specific reasons are not discussed. But what he ignites is not just an art sale of epic proportions, but a love story, a feature-length farewell, and an examination of what collecting means.

People generally live among objects that reflect their taste, lives and memories. So did Berge and YSL; the objects just happen to be by Leger, Brancusi and Picasso. One's decor, of course, also reflects one's wallet and Saint Laurent's was fat, beginning from his days running House of Dior, a tenure than ended abruptly in 1958, the year he met Berge. Together, the two men surrounded themselves with an array of objets d'art that would sell at Christie's for $483 million in 2009. But dizzying amounts of money are not really the issue of "L'Amour Fou" (or "crazy love").

What it's about is the reflection of the self in the things one buys, and the investment of hope: Saint Laurent, chronically depressed, was happy twice a year, we're told, when he debuted a new line of clothing. As much as his art collection meant to him, it could only deliver so much joy. For all of his fashion successes and hedonistic excesses (there is a wealth of archival footage and photographs), what one gets from "L'Amour Fou" is a distinct sense of melancholy.