French cinema friendly distrib label Music Box Films (they have Potiche on their upcoming release slate) have grabbed comic book artist Joann Sfar’s Gainsbourg — a feature debut that preemed in 2010 and showed up at the Tribeca Film Festival but ultimately failed to light a fire among the other foreign film distributors. I imagine that a flower dress month in the summer would be the ideal for the film’s release.
Gist: Serge Gainsbourg, vie héroïque is the story, amusing and fantastic, of Serge Gainsbourg and his famous mug. It’s the story of a little Jewish boy who saunters about in a Paris occupied by the Germans; of a young, timid poet (Eric Elmosnino) who leaves behind his paintings and his room beneath the rooftops to dazzle nightclub crowds during the Swinging Sixties. It’s a “heroic life” where the creatures of his mind become full-bodied on screen and his eloquence is a good match with his scandalous love affairs. From these elements arises a subversive work, with a loyal and rebellious citoyen as its star who stirs up the whole world until his death in 1991 at the age of 62.
Worth Noting: Since last year, there has been talk that Sfar’s animated The Rabbi’s Cat (adapted from his own comic book) is headed to Cannes.
Do We Care?: Just like the uncanny resemblance of Eric Elmosnino to Serge, the film definitely “looks the part” and while we generally liked the hit parade and string of famous people in the Birkins and Bardots, the portion that we wished we could have cared for is when Sfar creatively explores episodes in Gainsbourg’s childhood — the scenes make this a more “innovative” biopic but also demonstrate how the film in its entirety lacks a dramatic cohesiveness.
