Gainsbourg [DVD]

Fans of Serge Gainsbourg may be a little disappointed that "Gainsbourg:Vie Heroique", by Joann Sfar, offers a somewhat fragmented and kaleidoscopic picture of the great French singer and songwriter, instead of a more straight, documentary style biopic. Somewhat in the manner of the British movie, "Sex and Drugs and Rock n'Roll",(2009), where Andy Serkis recreated Ian Dury unforgettably in a series of episodes from the performer's life, Sfar presents a series of tableaux, each one of which illustrates a particular theme which the director considers significant in relation to Gainsbourg's career.

Eric Elmosnino gives a terrific performance in the name role. Other players too give outstanding performances, not only in terms of their vitality but also to an uncanny degree in looking so much like the characters Gainsbourg encountered during his life. In this regard the actors who played Bardot (Laetitia Casta), Juliette Greco (Anna Mouglalis), and Jane Birkin (the late Lucy Gordon), were outstanding. Other characters, including Frehel, Georges Brassens, Boris Vian and Django Reinhard, also appear briefly and much trouble has been taken to find actors who greatly resemble the original figures.

The film throughout is a wonderfully colourful and witty tribute to Gainsbourg's life and times - it is visually very beautiful - but more importantly it has a tough political edge in relation to its treatment of anti-semitism, both in the France of Gainsbourg's time, and in personal terms of the singer's perception of himself. Again, fans of the singer may regret that less attention is paid to Gainsbourg's music, but maybe someone is already preparing the documentary that would complete the picture.

Altogether the film is an entertaining and vivid recreation of an era in French culture. Highly recommended.

Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque) is going to suffer in the Anglo-Saxon world from the acutely French nature of his appeal. His work over parts of five decades was wide-ranging and hard to categorise, but for most of us it is centered around "Je t'aime" delivered with lots of grunting and the reedy voice of Jane Birkin. My knowledge of French music starts to weaken with Georges Ulmer in Pigalle and is gone with Jacques Brel (assuming we can count him as French for this purpose) thereafter it is warbling songs by female singers for whom one's true interest was the photo on the record sleeve..... bonjour Francoise Hardy. Accordingly, I missed many of the musical themes the film brings in, though even I could detect a number of the sexual themes which seem to have obsessed him.

I suspect in good part the film is concerned with Gainsbourg's ability to have affairs with numerous attractive women. Here Eric Elmosnino plays him with a remarkable level of believability, and an uncanny physical likeness. Gainsbourg as intellectual (and maybe satyr) comes through from his precocious childhood (admirably played by Kacey Mottet Klein) into his less successful era as a painter and his constant belief in his own ugliness (his gueule - represented by an actor with a big-nose-big-ears headpiece). His descent into drink and his movement into other musical styles is not as fully sketched. Gainsbourg was a remarkable artist, a bit of a bastard but without the background of his other music the film left me to start exploring the man's work.

This is a film like almost no other. It tells the story of Serge Gainsbourg, one of France's most popular, and controversial, musicians.

The film deals with various episodes in his life, from growing up as a Jew in Nazi occupied France, through his noted affairs, his fist steps in the world of music, the creation of `J'Taime', his relationship with his parents, wives and children, and the controversy surrounding his recording fo the French national anthem.

So far so run of the mill biographical picture. But there is something that sets this film apart, and that is the slightly surreal air. Gainsbourg is haunted by various animated characters, notably Professor Flipus, a sublimation of his own sub-conscience and baser desires. These animations have a charm all of their own, and serve to really push the story and explore Gainsbourg's motivations.

I have to confess that after watching the film, I had a better understanding of the man, but I didn't warm to him much and had a feeling of slight distaste for him. His music, while not always to my taste, is very good and it is easy to see why he became such an icon in France.

This is a very charming film that presents the life of this essentially unlikeable man in a way that keeps the viewer engaged. It is quirky, funny in places, moving in others. It is quite unique. Four stars.

The film is in French with English subtitles.