Second Saint Laurent biopic different by design

Four months into writing his biopic of Yves Saint Laurent, director-writer Bertrand Bonello got the call. Another film about the French fashion icon was going into production. It's the sort of news that would deflate even the most resilient of directors. "The main stress is you ask yourself: 'Will the film happen?'" Bonello says. "Can the market sustain two films in the same year on the same subject? And I guess the other film had the same question."

Thankfully for Bonello, the answer was "yes" - proof perhaps that YSL remains one of the most important cultural figures in 20th-century France, even if the film ground to a halt more than once due to funding problems.

Jalil Lespert's - starring Pierre Niney as the designer - opened in France in January and was screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival in March, then went on general release here in April.

Bonello took a more considered approach with his . "They wanted to do the race," he says, sitting in UniFrance's breezy pavilion at Cannes. "And me, I wanted to spend time on my work, not to rush. Of course, it's more difficult to come second - but I didn't want to come first and do a bad film. I prefer to take my time. I'm slow … For me the film has to be really precise and for this you need time. So I assumed we'd be second."

He was wise to wait, with scoring a place in official competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and also latterly being named to represent France in the Oscar race for best foreign language film. Still, Gaspard Ulliel, who plays Saint Laurent in Bonello's film, admits it was "weird" knowing that another actor was approaching the same character at the same time. "I was constantly wondering how far he would go, how he would change his voice - and if he would change his voice," the star says. "And then I realised that I had to totally forget about this other biopic and just focus on ours."