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MovieMail's Review
Michael Brooke discovers much more to the iconic singer than 1968’s breathless ‘Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus’ in this inventive biopic about one of the last century’s French cultural legends.
Best known over here for ‘Je t’aime, moi non plus’, the scandalous single that he recorded with future wife Jane Birkin, Serge Gainsbourg (1928-91) was one of the last century’s French cultural legends.
Born Lucien Ginsburg at a time of increasing anti-Semitism (and not just on the part of the Nazis who occupied France in his teens), he overcame this and his physical unattractiveness by developing a roguishly subversive wit and a facility with words and music unmatched by his peers or anyone since.
A conventional biopic would still offer plenty of meat, but graphic novelist Joann Sfar goes much further, turning the story of one of his creative idols into a rollicking fantasia in which Gainsbourg’s waking life is constantly invaded by nightmares about his head becoming a cabbage, or inconveniently-timed visits by imaginary beings such as the taloned Professor Flipus, a caricatured projection of Gainsbourg’s many insecurities – not least his nagging belief that he has thrown away his real talent (painting) for a life of writing disposable commercial pap.
The barely-known Eric Elmosnino is astonishing in the title role: neither he nor Sfar are remotely inclined to play down Gainsbourg’s less savoury aspects, not least because they’re quintessential parts of his public persona: a climactic speech in which he brings around a crowd of nationalist would-be lynchers outraged by his reggae-backed defilement of ‘La Marseillaise’ is a show-stopper.
There’s strong support from Laetitia Casta and the late Lucy Gordon as his two celebrity lovers (Casta plays Brigitte Bardot, smuggled into Gainsbourg’s parents’ flat to dodge the paparazzi) and especially from Kacey Mottet Klein as young Lucien, spending his teens cheeking officials and chatting up women noticeably older than himself.
Sfar says that he wrote the first draft after bingeing on interviews in which Gainsbourg was often audibly the worse for wear – by the end Sfar said it was as though he’d been sitting in a smoky nightclub in the small hours listening to anecdotes that were so entertaining that he simply didn’t care whether or not they were true. His film gives much the same impression.
Cinemoi exclusive interview with Joann Sfar and Eric Elmosnino
Interview with director Joann Sfar
Trailer.
Film Description
A completely original take on one of France's greatest mavericks, the brilliantly talented, infamous Serge Gainsbourg, written and directed by Joann Sfar, and based on his own graphic novel. Eric Elmosnino takes the lead and, in uncanny characterisations, Laetitia Casta takes the role of Brigitte Bardot and Lucy Gordon that of Jane Birkin.
A vivid interpretation of the life of one of the twentieth century’s most extraordinary artists - singer, songwriter and hellraiser, Serge Gainsbourg. Beginning with an enchanting glimpse at his early life, growing up in 1940s occupied Paris, we follow the metamorphosis of precocious Lucien Ginsburg into ‘Serge Gainsbourg’, through his successful song-writing years in the 1960s, until his death in 1991. Tracing not only the major steps in his musical trajectory from obscure pianist to cabaret artiste to major pop cultural phenomenon, Gainsbourg also explores lesser known dimensions of his colourful persona: his Russian/Jewish roots and his aspirations as a painter. Gainsbourg encompasses the seminal moments of his career and glamorous notoriety, including the recording of 'Les Sucettes': a thinly veiled paean to the joys of oral sex with 18 year old France Gall, his infamous reggae rendition of 'la marseilleise' and of course the saga of his greatest love song – 'Je t’aime moi non plus'. Gainsbourg also takes us through his relationships with the great women of his life, Juliette Greco (Anna Mouglalis), Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta) and of course, his wife and muse, Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon).
Written and directed by acclaimed comic-book Artist Joann Sfar, adapted from his own graphic novel, the story is injected with a bold poetic dimension through the use of animation, used to vividly depict Serge’s alter-egos and tempter, including La Gueule, a lanky, long-nosed, snake-fingered puppet figure, an artefact of his early experiences of anti-Semitism in wartime Paris.
Gainsbourg is a stunning combination of realist narrative and poetic animation that is also a touching biopic and inspired musical.
