Serge Gainsbourg, Vie Héroïque (France)

What can I say, there was only one Serge Gainsbourg!  As Président Mitterrand said at Gainsbourg's funeral, "He was our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire... He elevated the song to the level of art."  I've loved Gainsbourg for years, but really just as a French-speaking American.  I (shamably) never knew until seeing the film that the song "Aux armes et caetera" was a reprise of the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise."  Now it makes more sense, and I can appreciate the scandal from the dirty old bugger scandal master himself.  

The French certainly have a different concept of a hero than Americans, made especially poignant in a film naming him hero and yet spending a significant percentage of the film showing his faults... but he did make wrecklessness, unkemptliness, and scandal such beautiful statements, worthy of Baudelaire.  I loved seeing his imaginary double (in the shape of a giant louse ((NB: "Élisa")) ) and how a little Jewish boy could mock the nazis and get away with it.  Both in the Nazi occupation of Paris and later in a singing career ("On va danser le Nazi-rock.")  

Seeing the film, I think of "La Mome" ("La vie en Rose") about Edith Piaf and wonder if the US could appreciate this film yet... not sure how many Americans know about Serge G, but given how rough around the edges he was and that he could still squeak out perfect songs in so many genres in a 40+ year career, they damn well would love him. 

'Nough about the man, now the film.  Lead actor Eric Elmosnino did quite an impressive job representing all the flavors (smells) of Serge Gainsbourg, from his modest dorky late 50's timidity and sexual trepidation to 60's sultry smoove swank-master bagging Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, to self-consciously sloppy former playboy jumping ship to Jamaica for a new sound, to defiant drunkard in a stupor playing with a loaded gun in front of his kids.  Film had a nice blend of reality and imaginary (the louse with the giant Jew face), reverence and mockery (again, the "Jew face"), without trying to be the definitive biography.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1329457/