GAINSBOURG

France, 2010, 130 minutes, Colour.
Eric Elmosnino, Lucy Gordon, Laetitia Casta, Doug Jones, Anna Mouglalis, Sara Forestier, Claude Chabrol.
Directed by Joann Sfar.

20th century music aficionados will be familiar with the work of Serge Gainsbourg, both music and lyrics. Film fans will remember that he was married to Jane Birkin and appeared in a number of films with her and is the father of actress, Charlotte Gainsbourg. Those with a memory for controversies and scandals will remember his record of ‘Je T’ Aime’, which was considered too explicit in lyric, sentiment and breathing, when it first appeared.

This is a biopic but moves away from the standard storytelling although, despite some flashbacks, does have a linear plotline. But, realism is not of the essence. The writer-director, long a fan of Gainsbourg, his music and his paintings declares that he prefers the Gainsbourg lies rather than the Gainsbourg truths. Eric Elmosino seems a perfect incarnation of Gainsbourg, in odd looks, in manner and in singing the Gainsbourg songs. Gainsbourg died in 1991 at age 62.

The film opens quite strikingly reminding us of the Gainsbourg Jewish background. (In fact he was born Lucian Ginsberg.) It is occupied Paris and the little Lucian lines up to be the first to receive and pin on his yellow star. On his way home, a billboard image comes alive as a monstrous anti-Semitic creature who chases the young boy. This visual device becomes more imaginative as the film progresses, the writer creating a papier mache giant creature who accompanies Lucien and then Serge, something of his alter ego. This creature (in the subtitles referred to as his ‘mug’, his strange face and fool persona) continually reappears, a device that enables the film to have what might normally be an interior dialogue, up there verbally and visually. In this way, the audience grasps and emotionally responds to different crises, the different decisions, the mistakes, the successes.

Ginsberg grows up to be a short but gangly-awkward young man. He hates the piano despite his father’s domineering insistence. He prefers art school, where he is somewhat precocious. But, as a young adult, he realises that he has a talent for music, for melodies, and for recitative lyrics that are poetically challenging as well as expressions of the ordinariness and, sometimes, the ugliness of life. His heritage is, in fact, hundreds of songs.

While he does have a kind of Gallic, raffish charm, sometimes with moments of charismatic personality, it is not always easy to see why women fall for him. And they do. He dances with Juliette Greco. Brigitte Bardot was besotted with him (and Laetitia Castel captures her mood and sexiness very vividly). Jane Birkin was attracted, pursued him, married him and stayed with him as long as she could. Lucy Gordon plays Jane Birkin well, but she looks too strong and healthy for the waif-like figure that Jane Birkin was (and still is).

What we have is a life story (with its truths, exaggerations, imaginations, and falsehoods). We have a portrait with plenty of warts – Gainsbourg can be a fickle lover, a fickle friend, a self-publicist with a high quotient of narcissistic nonchalance. We have the evocation of the Parisian music world, with the touch of the bohemian, of the 1950s to the 1980s. And we have an interesting device in the conception of the ‘mug’ in making a film communicate an inner life as well as the outer events and encounters.

1. The reputation of Serge Gainsbourg: music, film, visual art, his personality, an icon in France? The subtitle of the film as A Heroic Life?

2. The film showing the range of Gainsbourg’s talent, music and song, painting, showmanship, celebrity? Personal life?

3. The film showing his character, the Jewish background, his relationship with his father and his sternness, his mother, visual art, piano-playing, songs, the women in his life, being driven in his work?

4. The director and his perspective on the story, a graphic novel, a hero and antihero, the relative merit of truth and lies, reputation? A portrait rather than a biographical film?

5. The device of the creature, the subtitle calling him Mug? His being the alter-ego, his appearance, size, voice? The dialogue, inner and outer dialogue, the continued challenge to Gainsbourg?

6. The period from the 1940s to the 1970s, the range of change in France, the experience of the war, post-war France, the 50s and 60s?

7. The music, the score, Gainsbourg’s songs, the actor performing them? The importance of Je T'aime? With Brigitte Bardot, with Jane Birkin? The significance of his reggae version of The Marseillaise?

8. Gainsbourg as a boy, alone, his being Jewish, not aware of what this meant, lining up to get the star first? People’s reaction to him? His seeing the giant puppet, in the air, following it? His parents, at home, his not wanting to play the piano, his father’s insistence, his skill at art, going to art school? A young rebel? The screenplay returning to scenes of his childhood throughout the film?

9. His parents, Jewish, the war, prejudice, the piano, their later acceptance of their son’s celebrity, happy with him, the visits, their reaction to Brigitte Bardot, his performances, deaths?

10. The adult Serge Gainsbourg and changing his name, his skill as a painter, playing the piano, music, his reaction to this, his success, the wide audience?

11. The various styles of his music, the ballads, the lyrics, Je T'aime, the reaction of the producer, the risks, in the United Kingdom, in France?

12. The range of his encounters with significant women, the meeting with Juliette Greco, her singing? The affair with Brigitte Bardot, her pulling out of the relationship? The encounter with Jane Birkin, English, bossy? The portraits of the women, their personalities, songs, Juliette Greco, the apartment? Brigitte Bardot and her reputation, her husband, the visit, the affair, style, the song, her leaving? Jane Birkin, the 1960s, her reputation, song, film, marrying Gainsbourg, their children, her exasperated leaving of him?

13. His relationship with his children, especially Charlotte – in the light of her later career and success?

14. His incessant smoking, drinking, his heart attack, his health, the scares?

15. At work, the implied workaholic? Yet, the focus on his inner life and character, his alter-ego?

16. His effect on others, society, his appearances on television, his agents, showbiz?

17. The reggae experience, the West Indies, The Marseillaise, the hostile reaction, remaining in favour?

18. Old-fashioned biographical films and admiration for characters? The contrast with 21st century antiheroes, the challenge, their different gifts, difficult personalities, eccentricities? Yet considered ‘heroic’?