Gainsbourg – Der Mann, der die Frauen liebte (2010)

Gainsbourg – Der Mann, der die Frauen liebte: Directed by Joann Sfar. With Eric Elmosnino, Lucy Gordon, Laetitia Casta, Doug Jones. A glimpse at the life of French singer Serge Gainsbourg, from growing up in 1940s Nazi-occupied Paris through his successful song-writing years in the 1960s to his death in 1991 at the age of 62.

“As an Englishman I didnu0026#39;t have as much of an idea of Serge Gs career as most of the previous critics here, so a lot of this film was pretty educational. However, it wasnu0026#39;t a literal biopic by any means, using the cartoon characters alongside Serge (quite well, I thought) and the latter half of his life (I didnu0026#39;t realise when or whether heu0026#39;d died until Iu0026#39;d read one of your reviewers!) seemed to tail off into nothing, even more than his increasing physical degradation was suggesting.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI found the emphasis on his sexual groundbreaking and role as a general iconoclast a bit similar to the film u0026quot;Mesrineu0026quot; which came out a year or two back – a similar time period was covered in that – masses of smoke and sexism! The actresses playing Jane Birkin and Juliette Greco are good (especially Jane Bs English/French accent) but u0026quot;Brigitte Bardotu0026quot; less so, and the scenes with her do go on a bit (although some of the poses are meant to correspond with real Bardot roles like u0026quot;Et Dieu Crea La Femmeu0026quot; and u0026quot;La Meprisu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe music fits in well with the film and, surprisingly – with the film making style – the intrusion of early 1960s loud pop, and of reggae, is quite a shock to the system, as it is intended to be, and was at the time. Perhaps Iu0026#39;m missing some of the French references, but in general the milieu Gainsbourg moved in might not be best served by a u0026quot;straightu0026quot; biopic with a Nicholas Cage-type performance, but the surrealist cartoons do detract from the picture we get of Serge – and believe me, itu0026#39;s not that easy to like him! I wasnu0026#39;t that keen on the precocious young boy stage of his life either – a bit too u0026quot;thatu0026#39;s the French way boys grow upu0026quot; all very pre-Simone de Beauvoir.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnyway shouldnu0026#39;t carp too long – I was glad I saw it and a lot will stay with me, although Iu0026#39;ll remember the Django-type guitar playing possibly longer than the (apparently rather few) Gainsbourg songs which graced the soundtrack.”