Under Anthony Vaccarello’s innovative creative leadership, Saint Laurent embarks on a cinematic adventure with As Time Goes By, a project inspired by Marcel Proust’s literary masterpiece In Search of Lost Time.
This classic work, a favorite of Monsieur Saint Laurent, serves as the basis for a series of evocative short films exploring issues of memory, identity, and the passage of time.
The series, directed by Nadia Lee Cohen, stars a diverse cast such as Charlotte Gainsbourg, John Waters, Chloë Sevigny, Addison Rae, Joey King, Travis Bennett, Cooper Koch, and others. Each performer contributes a distinct energy to the screen, giving layers of intricacy and fascination to the visual story.
As Time Goes By beautifully captures the spirit of Proust’s introspective story through Cohen’s particular auteurist viewpoint. Cohen, known for her surreal images and sardonic storytelling, uses Proustian ideas to create a highly complex visual experience.
The films explore reoccurring themes in Proust’s work—love, longing, dreaming, desire, togetherness, time, and memory—and turn them into cinematic musings on the human condition.
Set against the season’s evocative backdrop, each video transforms into an emotional vignette, effortlessly blending Saint Laurent’s ageless elegance with Proust’s cerebral depth and thoughts.
The series not only honors the novel’s investigation of how the past creates identity, but it also gives new life to its major ideas, linking the worlds of literature and modern design.
In Search of Lost Time, originally published in seven volumes, is renowned for its in-depth exploration of memory and the transformational power of contemplation. Through As Time Goes By, Saint Laurent reimagines these timeless ideas, resulting in a body of work that is both thought-provoking and visually gorgeous.
Book title translation by Terence Kilmartin and excerpt by C.K. Scott Moncrieff Narrated by @charlottegainsbourg
