As Time Goes by: Anthony Vaccarello’s Take on Marcel Proust for Saint Laurent

A passionate reader, Yves Saint Laurent had a very special feeling for Marcel’s Proust “In Search of Lost Time”, which he often called his favourite. Saint Laurent’s passion for the bestseller novel, inspired Anthony Vaccarello just in time for the winter holidays to launch a series of six short films “As Time Goes By”, directed by Nadie Lee-Cohen and starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, John Waters, Chloë Sevigny, Addison Rae, Joey King, Travis Bennett, Cooper Koch, and more.

Divided into six chapters, recurring themes from Proust’s novel - Love, Togetherness, Dreaming, Desire, Time, and Memory, the one-minute-long films are cinematic meditations on emotions we can all have during the festive season, and are published one by one on the social networks of Saint Laurent in these first days of December.

For example, set in a typical Parisian cafe, Love tells a story about the very first feelings when we fall in love and stars Charlotte Gainsbourg and Travis Bennett. Time takes place in Dresden, where John Waters takes a cab on a very snowy day and literally loses the notion of time, which is “elastic”, as the narrator says (Charlotte reads most of the extracts from “In Search of Lost Time” in her signature husky voice). Desire takes us to a hotel room of Chloé Sevigny, who imagines how her maid, masterfully incarnated by Joey King, has a desire to turn into her. Togetherness is all about spending time with the people you love, without saying a word (and reading at a New Year’s Eve party because maybe books are our closest friends?). Meanwhile, surrealist and romantic Dreaming is a mysterious story happening one night at a jazz bar, where John Waters watches Charlotte Gainsbourg perform. And of course, in every story, there are volumes from Marcel Proust that characters are leafing through in the most elegant ways.

Tune in to Saint Laurent’s social networks to watch the final chapter Memory - yet to be revealed - and rewatch the films to bring in the holiday mood. And maybe put this very special Proust novel in seven volumes under your Christmas tree to read or reread it during the holidays.

Courtesy: Saint Laurent

Text: Lidia Ageeva