GAINSBOURG

 “Famous In France”

French director Joann Sfar has made a lavish biopic of France’s 60s pop music icon Serge Gainsbourg called “Gainsbourg”. The film’s psychedelic style is in keeping with the period in which Gainsbourg rose to fame, but it gives the movie a quality that can best be described as a mixture of Ken Russell with Fellini.

Gainsbourg’s success in Europe was never repeated in the U.S., probably because his songs were written and performed in French (although that didn’t stop Edith Piaf from becoming more widely known over here). His biggest hit was “Je t’aime… moi non plus” which he recorded with his wife Jane Birkin. Here on Billboard’s U.S. charts, the single reached a disappointing #69. Other than that, some Americans may also know Gainsbourg as the father of movie actress Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Back in France, Gainsbourg’s musical success continued. His style was almost experimental in nature. His song lyrics were more like poetry, and his performances more like readings than actual singing. Musically his sound was definitive of 60s martini lounge-pop, heavily orchestrated like the scores of the James Bond movies of the time. Interestingly, Gainsbourg’s wife Birkin was previously married to John Barry, the composer of those James Bond scores.

But none of this has any place in this film. As biopics of musical celebrities go, unlike those for Ray Charles (“Ray”), Bobby Darin (“Beyond The Sea”) or Cole Porter (“De-Lovely”), “Gainsbourg” seems to suggest that the only reason its subject became famous was because of the women he dated which included not only Birkin, but also movie star Brigitte Bardot.

Gainsbourg is portrayed as a chain-smoking talentless manic-depressive, which doesn’t help us understand how such women could ever become attached to him. The film never explores the crucial elements of what made Gainsbourg appear to be the musical genius everyone saw him as. We rarely see him at work in the act of creating his music. We don’t know what inspires him, only that beautiful women seem to motivate him to want to be inspired.

Sfar’s film takes for granted that we know enough about Serge Gainsbourg to fill in the blanks. But that makes the film a tough sell here in America where most people know nothing about this man or his music. If we’re unable to fill in the blanks, then they just remain there like giant pot-holes.

As a side note, Birkin is played here by Lucy Gordon, a wonderful young actress who sadly committed suicide prior to this film’s release.

DVD Double Feature:

The closest thing to an American version of Serge Gainsbourg might be Jim Morrison, the leader of 60s rock band The Doors. In Oliver Stone’s brilliant 1991 biopic “The Doors”, Val Kilmer plays Morrison who, like Gainsbourg, was more of a poet than a pop song lyricist. Interestingly, both men died in and are buried in Paris.