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Eric Elmosnino as Serge Gainsbourg

3.5 stars
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life
Entertainment One
Available now
   
Singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg was a complicated figure, and this ambitious biopic by Joann Sfarr, who adapted it from his own graphic novel, is a bold tribute to one of France’s most legendary artists. Gainsbourg was, in essence, a poet whose love of provoking his audience with songs filled with sexual double entendres earned him a reputation as a pervert.
   
To help paint the picture of a man whose formative years were shaped by having to hide his Jewish background in Nazi-occupied France, the director uses an imaginary alter ego played by Pan’s Labyrinth’s Doug Jones in a mechanical mask, who goads Gainsbourg into abandoning his life as a painter for the more lucrative music business by writing songs for teen pop sensation France Gall. The gimmick to use a grotesque stand-in to soften Gainsbourg’s misogynistic leanings also livens up the usual biopic trappings.
   
When Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta) enters the picture, it’s almost a shame that she leaves so quickly. During his clandestine affair with the sexy star, Serge writes a few songs for her — including Comic Strip, of which there’s a lively onscreen performance. Even his parents are excited for their son’s bagging of the legendary Bardot. But when she refuses to record J’Taime.. moi non plus — the illicit recording which featured a simulated female orgasm — due to the protestations of her then husband, Gainsbourg is devastated and the relationship ends.
   
He bounces back, though, with the help of English model Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon), fresh off a divorce from John Barry, and begins a 13-year relationship with the actress. By the 1970s, Serge is falling apart from alcoholism and delusions that ultimately transform him into a debauched celebrity, culminating in the release of a reggae anthem of La Marseillaise, which became a national controversy.
   
It’s a remarkable performance by Eric Elmosnino, who, with barely noticeable makeup, is a dead ringer for the late singer. He transforms himself from a young romantic figure with a penchant for cheeky lyrics to a drunken mess filled with self hatred in the span of two hours.
   
It’s a bold, yet uneven debut for Sfarr, who dedicated this film to Lucy Gordon. Gordon took her own life just weeks after filming.

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Amanda Stefaniuk is a freelance writer who literally grew up in a video store