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Film: Gainsbourg
Release date: 10th January 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 122 mins
Director: Joann Sfar
Starring: Eric Elmosnino, Lucy Gordon, Laetitia Casta, Doug Jones, Anna Mouglalis
Genre: Drama/Biography/Musical
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: France/USA
Gainsbourg is brought to life in circumstances as unusual and creative as the man himself. Directed by Joann Sfar, a comic book writer making his directorial debut, Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque) is essentially an adaptation of Sfar’s graphic novel of the same title. Sfar mixes live action with animation and fantasy sequences and Eric Elmosnino takes the title role as the booze addled ladies man who changed the face of French music.
The film begins with Gainsbourg as a child (played by Kasey Mottet Klein), at this point he is known as Lucien Ginsburg, and is scolded by his father for making mistakes while playing the piano. Mozart he isn’t, and that’s the point in the scene, we are not dealing with a musical prodigy with an instinctive flair and passion to play the piano, rather with a boy for whom music is a means of expressing his vibrant, irrepressible imagination.
With the Nazis on their way into France, young Lucien is taken out of Paris and sent to a boarding school where, as a Jew, he can be protected from persecution. With his art and an imaginary friend, a multi-limbed and enormously headed Jew/creature from a Nazi propaganda poster, for company, Lucien begins to express himself as never before, becoming increasingly detached from reality.
The next time we see him is as an adult: he still paints, he plays piano in bars to make a living, and he is still absorbed in his own imaginings - his imaginary friend now being a hideous caricature of his own identity whom he calls his “ugly mug.”
The rest of the film is a flowing and dream-like, booze soaked journey through Gainsbourg’s musical and artistic career as he struggles with his separating identity, and goes through an endless succession of beautiful woman as fast as his cigarette supply, courting controversy wherever he goes…
From the opening credits alone, it is clear that Gainsbourg oozes artistic flair. A surreal animated sequence which features Serge Gainsbourg swimming, cigarette still lit, through schools of fish (also smoking) and underwater cities. It is a mesmerising sequence which makes it clear from the outset that the film is a celebration of the artistry of Gainsbourg, the power of his imagination.
From stylish interiors to avant-garde fashion, from impromptu songs to surreal animated sequences, Gainsbourg is a celebration of art. The visuals are used not only to put across Gainsbourg’s story in an intriguing, hypnotic way; but to paint the picture of a man struggling with the overwhelming power of his own imagination. His inability to concentrate on one thing for too long, because his mind inevitably takes him somewhere else, leads to a disintegration of most of his relationships, as well as, initially, a confusion about how best to focus his artistic prowess - to be a painter or a musician. His ‘ugly mug’ provides not only comedy in the sheer lunacy of his presence, but an unsettling horror in his grotesque appearance. It is suggested throughout that he is the devil on Gainsbourg’s shoulder, constantly leading him in the wrong direction. He is also suggestive of a split personality, particularly in one scene when Gainsbourg visits the home of a young singer, France Gall. While Serge goes to one side of the room and attempts to seduce and corrupt the innocent young girl, his ‘ugly mug’ is at the opposite side playing the piano for her father. This reveals an interesting aspect of Gainsbourg’s character - it is not that his lust for female companionship is getting in the way of his music, rather it is his artistic drive which is getting in the way of the lust which is central to his being.
As interesting as the diverse and experimental stylistic techniques Sfar employs are, they do present a problem. By packing the film so full of musical sequences and psychedelic departures, it becomes quite difficult to follow - we lose track of which woman Gainsbourg is with, how many children he has, where he is, and how many years have passed since the last scene. This is clearly deliberate on Sfar’s part, as the point seems to be to examine the inner workings of the mind of a great artist rather than to provide a traditional life story. The problem is the film is structured, for the most part, in the standard format of the biopic. We see Gainsbourg as a child, the early development of his career and most of the important moments in his life, and while excluding his death from the film is effective in maintaining the power of his influence, there is a lack of clarity to these events of the film, which becomes distracting. Sfar seems to have been caught somewhere in between traditional biopic, surrealist comedy and Felleni’s 8 ½, and while his artistic flair and solid source material means he comes close to striking the perfect balance, there are too many sequences which frustrate to consider it a resounding success.
All of this is a shame as there is a lot to like about the film. Eric Elmosnino is terrific, not only bearing a striking physical resemblance to Gainsbourg, but capturing his genius, his instability and his arrogance in equal measure.
The music is, of course, excellent and having characters break into song with full musical accompaniment gives a sense of how Gainsbourg formed his music - creating complete musical arrangements in his head and launching straight into them. Indeed, there is a lot to be learned from Gainsbourg about the nature of art, how it is formed, how the process goes from visualisation to realisation. What we do not learn, sadly, is enough about Serge Gainsbourg.
A truly innovative, mesmerising film from a first time director with a penchant for great visuals. Gainsbourg is a fascinating portrayal of a great artist. The film may lack the focus to rank amongst the great biopics of our time, but remains a treat for the eyes and mind. Innovative and difficult to follow in equal measure, Serge Gainsbourg would no doubt have approved. PK
Film: Gainsbourg
Release date: 10th January 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 122 mins
Director: Joann Sfar
Starring: Eric Elmosnino, Lucy Gordon, Laetitia Casta, Doug Jones, Anna Mouglalis
Genre: Drama/Biography/Musical
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: France/USA
The life and death of a musical legend is always a good excuse to make a film of grandeur. Even better if the deceased is as bizarre and sensual as the French social rebel Serge Gainsbourg. Serge Gainsbourg: Vie Heroique is the directorial debut from Franco-Belgian comic book writer Joann Sfar, slipping excessive imagination and the odd animation into the already overflowing glass of Gainsbourg’s life story.
Serge Gainsbourg: part-time jazz soloist, part-time pianist, part-time kitsch pop vocalist, part-time Brigitte Bardot duettist, part-time reggae experimentalist…full-time ladies’ man. With his ambitious female-based pastimes, his love of alcohol and his imperfect, alluring vocals, Gainsbourg is the perfect rock‘n’roll cliché. But before all that, Sfar introduces Serge before he was even ‘Serge’ – mischievous Jewish boy Lucien Ginsberg flits his way over French cobblestones and dances with imaginary anti-Semitic puppets. Intrigued yet?
The screen follows Lucien as he nonchalantly smokes cigarettes and steals from sweet shops, whilst caricaturing his childhood terrors within Nazi occupied Paris. Then as Lucien swaps sweets and piano practise for art and sex, the film gives an overview of his episodic wives and mistresses, detailing his ascension to cult provocateur and multi-faceted artist. He is persuaded to re-fashion himself as ‘Serge Gainsbourg’, as he grows into a complex performer with a somewhat grotesque beauty and unfaltering charisma…
The film focuses on Gainsbourg’s attraction to beautiful yet vulnerable women, allocating prominence to Brigitte Bardot, Jane Birkin and Juliette Greco. His whirlwind affair with Bardot implements a dirty fairytale at the start of his career, and her disappearance can only accentuate the elements of noir and notoriety in Gainsbourg’s character. His irrevocable despair is subsequently tamed by British darling Jane Birkin, with her childlike outfits, endless legs and fragile vocals that work so well alongside his songs. Gainsbourg cannot seem to avoid exposed skin, he cannot suppress his indisputable talent, and between him and his ladies more cigarettes are smoked than notes sung.
Eric Elmosino takes the lead as Gainsbourg himself, expertly cast with a remarkable resemblance to the real thing (including the trademark nasal silhouette). He expertly projects the insecurity of our ‘hero’, screaming at his inner ghouls and internal voices, whispering seductive nothings to teenage girls, and allowing his face to speak a thousand words without so much as parting his lips. Elmosino lifts Gainsbourg off the 35mm celluloid film and lets him fly above the audience in an intoxicating gust of disobedience and charm. Not forgetting young Serge either, played by Kacey Mottet Klein, who effortlessly opens his little mouth and lets flawless, authentic acting fall out.
Gainsbourg’s girls are striking. A surplus of legs and derrieres and unfussy sexuality are interpreted by each actress in a way that allows the audience to fall in love with each of them in a different way. Laetitia Casta plays Brigitte Bardot, a mirror of Gainsbourg’s animated and seductive persona. The blonde mane, the thigh skimming boots, the frivolous giggle – Casta has got it perfect, right down to the partially absent stare of elation mixed with a drop of bashfulness.
The film itself is dedicated to the deeply saddening death of the actress Lucy Gordon, who committed suicide during the final stages of filming. Gordon plays Jane Birkin, the girl of unthinkable beauty who rescues Gainsbourg from his post-Bardot emotional misery. Birkin speaks in endearing British-tinted French, and holds herself with clumsy elegance, but there is an unspoken reservation in either the scripting or the acting that force the audience to lament Bardot at the start. However, Gainsbourg’s gradual increase in taboo behaviour and disregard for morals override Birkin’s somewhat cold sensibility, and a brilliantly executed outburst from Gordon plants her safely inside our hearts.
Gainsbourg’s internal demons are represented by a reoccurring papier-mâché alter-ego with which other characters can converse. It is referred to as Gainsbourg’s “mug,” and is a very sly way of including the unsavoury side of Gainsbourg without contaminating the amorous side of the tale. The selection of Gainsbourg tracks teamed with his surreal ‘mug’ underpins the entire movie with a sinister passion. He argues with himself, he talks to invisible voices; he lets his dark psychology get in the way of his raw ability. And yet the romantic tortured artist triumphs in his usual cinematic way, generating an atmosphere of electrical quality which make the 2 hours and 10 minutes moments well spent.
The risqué lyrics of ‘Je T’aime...Moi Non Plus’, Brigitte Bardot enigmatically singing “SHEBAM! POW! BLOP! WIZZ!” in ‘Comic Trip’, Gainsbourg dancing with his fingers across pianos and guitars, and, of course, the comic viewing of old alcoholic Serge slurring in clubs beside young hipsters... What the film lacks in biographical detail it makes up for in the precocious glamour of Gainsbourg. It’s probable that nobody could ever quite retell his life with the splendour that it deserves, but Sfar has certainly painted a video in a language that we can all understand. NM
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 songwriting 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 Seccettes’: 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, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky), Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta, Born In 68), and his wife and muse Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon, Spiderman 3).
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 (Doug Jones, Pan’s Labyrinth), 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, ‘Un conte’ or fairytale that becomes both a touching biopic and inspired musical.
Release date: 10th January 2011
Certificate: 15
Running time: 122 mins
Director: Joann Sfar
Starring: Eric Elmosnino, Lucy Gordon, Laetitia Casta, Doug Jones, Anna Mouglalis
Genre: Drama/Biography/Musical
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: France/USA
Special Features:
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Behind the scenes
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Cinemoi exclusive interview with Joann Sfar and Eric Elmosnino
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Interview with director Joann Sfar
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Trailer
