Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life

This witty, surreal, and often sexy biopic tells the story of the late Serge Gainsbourg, France's beloved singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor who died at age 62 in 1991. Eric Elmosnino pulls off the very difficult task of portraying the dark and seductive superstar in writer-director Joann Star's Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (based on Star's own graphic novel). Incorporating a little magic realism along the way, this portrait begins with Gainsbourg's years as a Jewish kid in 1940s occupied France, tweaking Nazi bosses and defying his father over music lessons. Viewers next see Gainsbourg as a pianist in a transvestite bar, dabbling without purpose in music and painting, but finally committing to songwriting and creating winning pop hits. The subsequent chapters of Gainsbourg's success and personal life include his romance with Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta), 13-year partnership with British actress-singer Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon), controversial political bent late in his life, and eventual self-destructiveness and ill health. The director perhaps presumes too much that non-French viewers will know enough about Gainsbourg to fill in some gaps, but even if some will be left a bit in the dark over what Gainsbourg did and why he was culturally important, this is a winning profile overall, and Elmosnino is superb as the lead. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include the 2010 documentary short “Joann Sfar (Drawings)” by actor and director Mathieu Amalric (44 min.), a “making-of” featurette (10 min.), original watercolor storyboards and character sketches by Sfar, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a winning profile.] (T. Keogh)