Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (2010)
"Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque)" (original title)

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.

Director:

Joann Sfar

Writers:

Joann Sfar (graphic novel), Joann Sfar (screenplay)

Stars:

Eric Elmosnino, Lucy Gordon, Laetitia Casta

6 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eric Elmosnino	...	Serge Gainsbourg / Voix de La Gueule
Lucy Gordon	...	Jane Birkin
Laetitia Casta	...	Brigitte Bardot
Doug Jones	...	La Gueule
Anna Mouglalis	...	Juliette Gréco
Mylène Jampanoï	...	Bambou
Sara Forestier	...	France Gall
Kacey Mottet Klein	...	Lucien Ginsburg
Razvan Vasilescu	...	Joseph Ginsburg (le père)
Dinara Drukarova	...	Olga Ginsburg (la mère) (as Dinara Droukarova)
Philippe Katerine	...	Boris Vian
Deborah Grall	...	Elisabeth Levizky
Yolande Moreau	...	Fréhel
Ophélia Kolb	...	Le Modèle
Claude Chabrol	...	Le Producteur Musique de Gainsbourg

Storyline

Lucien Ginsburg, a rebellious French Jewish boy with a grotesque imagination, hates playing the piano like his father, a bar professional, and manages to be admitted to Montmartre Academy as painter, where he befriends an SS officer who helps him survive he occupation. After the war, he chooses to become a performing artist and adopts the stage name Serge Gainsbourg. His unorthodox songs bring him success, even his parents's approval, and lots of lovers, yet his marriages are all utter failures.

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Plot Keywords:

singer | 1960s | painting | animated credits | lying down in the middle of a street | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | Music

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Details

Official Sites:

Music Box Films [us] Official site [de]

Country:

France

Language:

French English Russian

Release Date:

20 January 2010 (France)

Also Known As:

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life

Filming Locations:

Rue de Verneuil, Paris 6, Paris, France

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$25,189 (USA) (2 September 2011)

Gross:

$230,311 (USA) (9 December 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

One World Films, Studio 37, Universal Pictures International (UPI)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

130 min 122 min (recut)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The production was lucky enough to have a five month rehearsal period.

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Goofs

The young Gainsbourg is shown drawing left-handed, but the adult Gainsbourg becomes right-handed.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Lucien Ginsburg: Can I put your hand in mine?
Girl: No, you're too ugly.

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Connections

References The Swimming Pool (1969)

User Reviews

Lowlife bohemia collides with 50's Hollywood

The life story of Serge Gainsbourg had to be filmed, and as he's one of the famous Frenchmen who aren't in fact Belgian, it's only a surprise that it took so long. That his life spanned the Nazi occupation to the rise of Disco would stretch credibility if this were fiction, but as it's all more or less true the director, who is already an accomplished graphic artist, manages to lift it to the level of slightly absurd fiction. Mixing in animation, self-consciously stagey sets and a life-sized puppet as Gainsbourg's dreaded alter ego.

Even the sordid lowlife is given the big treatment, and the early days in the garret look unashamedly glamorous as they would if re-imagined for an opera set or a Salvador Dali dream sequence, as director Joann Sfar lays it on with a trowel.

The episodic nature of the story gives it a rather patchy feel though, and I couldn't help thinking that one or two episodes, especially the cute Hollywood-style musical scene with Brigitte Bardot, could have been shorter. Bardot was just one of the high-profile women Gainsbourg captured, and so was the muse of the existentialists, Juliette Greco.The casting is pretty uncanny with the possible exception of Greco, who was never that model-thin.

Gainsbourg has always been, at least outside France, more famous for being cool than for his music. But his reworking of La Marseillaise which so upset the rightwing patriots of the Seventies was nothing but excellent. I'll go back just to hear that Sly and Robbie riddim one more time.

Quite a substantial feast but it's worth building up an appetite in advance. And of course, you get Jane Birkin and... That Song.