Under the direction of Anthony Vaccarello, the house of Saint Laurent presents a series of six short films entitled As Time Goes By and produced by photographer and filmmaker Nadia Lee Cohen. They will be revealed from November 25, 2024.
Saint Laurent adapts Marcel Proust into series
Through a series of captivating short films, Anthony Vaccarello, artistic director of Saint Laurent since 2016, pays homage to the almost obsessive passion of Mr Saint Laurent for the work In search of lost time of Marcel Proust.
Published in no fewer than seven volumes between 1913 and 1927 by Grasset, this novel, which remains after all these years one of the greatest masterpieces of French literature, lends its words to the house's new project.
“Each day that has passed has remained deposited in us, like in a vast library where there are older books. Love, memory, desire, conviviality, dreams, time… A volume that, undoubtedly, no one will ever ask to see” evokes Charlotte Gainsbourg.
We discover it in a video with an ethereal atmosphere, whose images attempt to poetically transcribe the passing of time and the emotions that pass through us at every moment. Composed of six videos of one minute each, the collection approaches Proustian themes with a fresh eye embodied by the various personalities summoned.
A five-star cast with Chloë Sevigny, Addison Rae, Charlotte Gainsbourg
After a sulphurous campaign inaugurating the collaboration between Skims and Dolce & Gabbana, the photographer Nadia Lee Cohen – whose name is currently on everyone's lips – was entrusted with this seductive project on which she takes a sensual and mysterious look .
Using her camera, she films the iconic ones in turn Charlotte Gainsbourgand Chloë Sevigny, two great regulars of Saint Laurent just like the American filmmaker John Waters who posed for the fall-winter 2020-2021 campaign of the house and more surprisingly the pop star Addison Rae, here breaking her rather pop and girly image.
Evolving in very vintage settings David Lynch bordering on the distressing, like a dark café, a narrow carpeted corridor and a warm-colored hotel room, the protagonists concentrated on reading an extract from the famous work thus find themselves immersed in a world where time, precisely, seems to have stopped…
Saint Laurent, new patron of cinema
Despite the new and original aspect of this communication format that is mini-films, this is far from being the first time that the house has shown its affection for the seventh art.
Indeed, in 2023 Anthony Vaccarello announced that he wanted to create his own production house, Saint Laurent Productions, which a year later saw three feature films presented at the Cannes Film Festival, including the formidable Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard.
Thanks to As Time Goes By, Saint Laurent reveals once again to what extent fashion and cinema are compatible and can evolve together. While waiting for the house's future major projects which are likely to dazzle us once again, this very latest series will be unveiled in dribs and drabs the week of November 25, 2024.
