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.