Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (2010)

Mildly interesting biopic on a French singer-songwriter who was apparently famous (probably only in France). More energetic and original than most biopics, it overdoes the imagery. The monster that flits in and out of scenes, representing Gainsbourg's dark side, I guess, is irritating from its first appearance and gets more irritating the more it appears.Cutting out the imagery and some of the more unnecessary scenes would have created a tight, fast-paced, and much more interesting movie. The ending was rather abrupt and unsatisfying too.Great performance by Eric Elmosnino in the lead role. Like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, I think he modeled his performance on Keith Richards' mannerisms. Good support from a cast which includes Laetitia Casta (as Brigette Bardot) and Lucy Gordon.

Captivating biopic directed by French director, novelist, comics artist Joann Sfar.If Gainsbourg was a river that ran deep in your world, if he was part of your cultural fabric, you will fall in love with the film, grateful that he has been recreated—beautifully—, that you can spend two hours in his company again, trying to puzzle out what happened to him. I loved witnessing once again the remarkable eloquence of this man of letters, his musical and poetic genius, his cutting wit, cheekiness, poker face, understated singing style, the subversiveness that was present from the outset, his vulnerability, his antics, drunken debauchery, quiet rage, the ears, the hooter, the string of alluring and high-profile women...Each episode blends into the next seamlessly - a rare feat in a biopic.I loved witnessing the love with which one artist, Sfar, paid homage to another.A feast.

Whilst I bow to no one in my love of both France as a nation and French culture I have always been bemused by the French readiness to iconicize a man whose ugliness bordered on the grotesque, a stranger to soap, water, shaving cream and razors, Olypic Gold standard chain smoker with little or no discernible charisma, purported song writer who churned out non or even anti-melodic songs with lyrics that were 1)simplistic, 2)banal and 3) little more than graffiti. Thinking that a film based on this freak may help me understand his hold over an entire nation I checked it out. It begins, I have to say, promisingly with interesting credits and an initial section set in Occupied Paris and featuring such genuine icons as Frehel, played by the brilliant Yoland Moreau, but soon, inevitably, the eponymous character begins writing what passes for songs amongst the easily pleased. The actor chosen to portray Gainsbourg contrives to match the real thing in ugliness and reminds us that for every Tyrone Power there was a Humphrey Bogart, for every Stewart Granger a James Mason and for every Gerard Philippe a Jean-Paul Belmondo, all very attractive to the female sex but do I need to remind you that Bogart, Mason and even Belmondo had both talent and charisma in spades whereas Gainsbourg was just ugly.

As an Englishman I didn't have as much of an idea of Serge Gs career as most of the previous critics here, so a lot of this film was pretty educational. However, it wasn't a literal biopic by any means, using the cartoon characters alongside Serge (quite well, I thought) and the latter half of his life (I didn't realise when or whether he'd died until I'd read one of your reviewers!) seemed to tail off into nothing, even more than his increasing physical degradation was suggesting.I found the emphasis on his sexual groundbreaking and role as a general iconoclast a bit similar to the film "Mesrine" which came out a year or two back - a similar time period was covered in that - masses of smoke and sexism! The actresses playing Jane Birkin and Juliette Greco are good (especially Jane Bs English/French accent) but "Brigitte Bardot" less so, and the scenes with her do go on a bit (although some of the poses are meant to correspond with real Bardot roles like "Et Dieu Crea La Femme" and "La Mepris".The music fits in well with the film and, surprisingly - with the film making style - the intrusion of early 1960s loud pop, and of reggae, is quite a shock to the system, as it is intended to be, and was at the time. Perhaps I'm missing some of the French references, but in general the milieu Gainsbourg moved in might not be best served by a "straight" biopic with a Nicholas Cage-type performance, but the surrealist cartoons do detract from the picture we get of Serge - and believe me, it's not that easy to like him! I wasn't that keen on the precocious young boy stage of his life either - a bit too "that's the French way boys grow up" all very pre-Simone de Beauvoir.Anyway shouldn't carp too long - I was glad I saw it and a lot will stay with me, although I'll remember the Django-type guitar playing possibly longer than the (apparently rather few) Gainsbourg songs which graced the soundtrack.