Movie Review: Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (2010)

I know very little about the French singer Serge Gainsbourg where I could possibly comment on the historical accuracy of the film "Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life", but I was moved by the artistry, tempo and style of the film. Like any biopic whose duty is to portray a person's life in over 90 minutes, it succinctly carries us from Serge's life as a Jew in France during WWII, to his piano lessons with his father, and tells us about his imaginary relationship with an id like puppet characterture of himself-large ears, large nose and all.

Serge's profile isn't worthy of feminine adoration, yet when his original, uncompromising, honest music is played, the women are swept up-including, the Brigitte Bardot.

Eric Elmosnino plays Serge. He breathes life into the character and plays him with such a presence. The way he smokes his cigarette with his fingers stretched, bringing it into his mouth, is perhaps the most artful display of smoking I can think of in cinema history. I was reminded often of Oliver Stone's movie the Doors. Serge, like Jim Morrison, plays a Dionysian character. Like Morrison, you are moved by his poetry and witness the debris he leaves in his wake.

His song "Je t'aime... moi non plus" was controversial because his duet partner, and wife at the time, Jane Birkin, had, according to Wikipedia "salacious moaning culminating in an orgasm at the song's finale." It has to be one of the greatest love songs ever written. The movie, like the man, combined style, class and a daring attitude to deliver a moving performance.

Aham Brahmasmi

I glanced over "The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire" by Deepak again today. I came across the sutras in the book and they seemed to stick out for me tonight. According to the book a sutra is "an intention coded in sound". The first principle in the book is: You are a Ripple in the Fabric of the Cosmos. Aham Brahmasmi-The core of My being is the ultimate reality, the root and ground of the universe, the source of all that exists. Here are some of the Sutra Statements at the end of this chapter: * Imagine that the whole universe is being played out inside you (When you have an image in your mind, say, "aham brahmasmi.") * Imagine that you are connected to everything that exists-aham brahmasmi * Imagine that you are eternal-aham brahmasmi

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn. Gore Vidal

People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That's what it's all finally about. -Joe Campbell