Review of Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (2010) by Bob L — 20 Feb 2011

3 stars, as it requires rating on 2 levels: 1 good, 1 bad. From the title, you would guess it's a biopic of one of Frances best known artists, but as such it really tells you little and is a poor illustration of his works and life.

And there's the rub. It's so busy being surreal with his inner battles (he seemed constantly at odds with an inner view of himself) represented in a cartoon or puppet manifestation, that it should be a 'psychopic'.

What we end up with is a stylish, sexy, well executed film about a writers inner demons; and the real life facts just seem to be a dusting on that. We do get Nazis, Bardot, Greco, Birkin, booze, J'Taime,Jamaica, and heart attack, (no Lemon Incest, or telling Whitney Houston he wants 'to fuck her' on live t.

V.) but all these are reduced to window dressing to concentrate on his insecurities. If you know little of Gainsbourg, you will learn little from this, but if you're familiar with him, it's an interesting self indulged dalliance with 'what might have been in his head' by Joann Sfar.