It’s undoubtable that the Gainsbourg family have a liking for controversy – while this generation sees Charlotte as an actress/singer pushing the boundaries (known best outside France for Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist), father Serge was no doubt a heavy influence. The man they say brought French music out of its traditional roots had a turbulent and unstable life, but what he brought to the world was intriguing – and shown as such in Gainsbourg, a biopic that pushes the eccentricities of this volatile man.
As a chronological look at Gainsbourg’s life, you first see his time spent as a young Jew under birth name Lucien Ginsburg (Kacey Mottet Klein) – charming in his forwardness towards his elders. His creativity started early as life eventually superseded his imagination. Creating a ‘mug’ for himself as a childhood fantasy (a shadow that would challenge and influence his decisions), ‘Gainsbarre’ stayed with him throughout his life, often haunting and then liberating him. Director Joann Sfar in his debut uses the style of the graphic novel Gainsbourg is based on to portray the ‘mug’ in the quirky way you come to expect from French cinema. His knowledge of the base material is sound – as it should be, he wrote it – as he takes you through the mind of a modern genius. As an adult, the pressure Gainsbourg felt was always on him to succeed at everything only came from himself – and as you see the support he gets from his loving parents and numerous partners you’re exposed to the affect the ‘mug’ and other demons in his head had on him.
For the man who penned Luxembourg a Eurovision Song Contest winner and the infamous Je t’aime… moi non plus, it’s his explosive relationships that provide the crux of his story. How much (or how little) you know about this man is irrelevant; from lusting after singer Juliette Greco (Anna Mouglalis) to a short-term affair with the buxom Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta) to his 13-year relationship with Charlotte’s mother Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon, who sadly committed suicide in 2009), Sfar shows them all with enough force to grasp how they all affected him. He acknowledges Gainsbourg’s penchant for picking up flawed and vulnerable women, who ultimately overshadow his relationships with his children… Mouglalis and Gordon particularly deliver their roles superbly, adding to their beauty. As for Gainsbourg himself, Eric Elmsonino’s similarities in both looks and mannerisms are uncannily strong. The moody panache he brings to the man adds so much intrigue to the story as you discover his talents and downfalls. Gainsbourg’s charm as a kid as portrayed by Mottet Klein makes you wish there was more to see from his younger days; Sfar’s use of his younger self in flash sequences should work but doesn’t. However, Gainsbourg wins from its almost fictional feel with the animation element, but at the same time managing to remind you of the reality that this man existed – a man that challenged French culture through his poetry and art. Whether you loved or hated him he was a treasured soul. Especially to Charlotte and her siblings, no doubt.
Verdict
An immersing film, Gainsbourg encourages curiosity as you observe the life of a curious man.
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