Listen: Director Bertrand Bonello on Creating a Dual Character in 'Saint Laurent'

Bertrand Bonello’s Saint Laurent is hardly a run-in-the-mill biopic. This star-studded film, which examines the fashion designer’s exuberant life between the years of 1967 and 1977, made its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and has recently been selected as France’s submission in the Foreign Language Oscar category. Prior its appearance at the New York Film Festival, director Bonello spoke with the Film Society’s Dennis Lim following a press screening.

As with any biopic, casting is monumental. In the case of Saint Laurent, Gaspar Ulliel and Helmut Berger portray the icon at different ages. Bonello noted the importance in casting actors for both the roles they play and their own personalities. “Gaspar and I had the same idea, that the character we wanted to create had to be 50 percent Saint Laurent and 50 percent of Gaspar,” said Bonello. “I wanted something of him, so it’s not only an imitation but it’s something more incarnated.”

In the film, chronology is not always something to be taken for granted, especially with regard to the ongoing emotional narrative it strives to create. “At the moment when Helmut arrives, we really [adopt his persona to the point] we’re almost in his head,” noted Bonello. “I wanted the idea of time to explode, like if you come into a room and there are mirrors everywhere, each mirror is a part of yourself. The film, at that moment, becomes quite mental and much more affective than in the beginning. I wanted the film to have an arc, so I used time for that.”

Saint Laurent screens as part of the Main Slate of the New York Film Festival September 30 and October 2.