Gainsbourg

The biopic is a saturated genre and Hollywood seems to be heavily trending towards endearing stories of talented and flawed celebrities; be it Ray Charles, Johnny Cash or Howard Hughes, the genre is inundated with sob-story after sob-story. I went into yet another, based on French musician Serge Gainsbourg, with a heavy, pessimistic heart ready to be underwhelmed.

This is why Gainsbourg deserves much appraisal for its originality it the face of potential staleness. Based on a graphic novel (that’s comic book to you and me) about his life the film isn’t afraid to take risks with regards to its subject and the film feels like a breath of fresh air because of it.

One of the elements likely to stick with any viewer is the imaginary ‘Mug’ character whom a young Gainsbourg creates for himself and who personifies everything he hates about himself. And it is in the early years of Gainsbourg’s life where the film shines its brightest with the opening half an hour floating by but succinctly setting up plot elements for further on, be it his way with women, his relationship with his parents or his affinity for art more so that music.

Eric Elmosnino, who bears a striking similarity to the man himself, excels as the protagonist and shoulders the two hour plus running time with unlikely ease. Such a role is difficult to pull off as we see the giddy highs in equal part to the doldrum lows but he retains interest throughout. The supporting cast, whilst standouts are few and far between, do well with the little roles that all seem to have. 20th century icons such as Jane Birkin and Brigitte Bardot each have a fleeting 20 minutes but never feel underdeveloped, unlike his muses towards the end, when the film starts to struggle and plays out more like a docudrama and loses some of its dramatic impotus.

Gainsbourg has remarkable chutzpah for presenting itself the way it does, with dream sequences and imaginary characters interweaved throughout but it all feels necessary in painting a picture of one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century and as such can place itself with pride next to other lauded works such as Walk The Line and La Vie en Rose. See this.