Gainsbourg - The man who loved women

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Movie
German title Gainsbourg - The man who loved women
Gainsbourg - Pop star, poet, provocateur (DVD title)
Original title Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque)
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 2010
length 130 (original version) / 116 (German version) minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Joann Sfar
script Joann Sfar
production Didier Lupfer ,
Marc Du Pontavice
music Olivier Daviaud
camera Guillaume Schiffman
cut Maryline Monthieux
occupation

Gainsbourg - The Man Who Loved Women is a French biopic from 2010 by Joann Sfar .

action

Serge Gainsbourg (actually Lucien Ginsburg), the ugly child of a Jewish bar pianist, is forced to take music lessons by his father. However, the boy's two great passions are painting and girls. Thanks to his charm and his cheeky wit, he always succeeds in arousing sympathy, even in much older girls. But times are tough in Nazi-occupied France, so Serge not only has to hide physically in the orphanage and in the forest, but also in his mind, where he fills his fantasy world with the most beautiful women he knows. An imaginary figure, a kind of alter ego called “Ugly Face”, has been with him since he was a child.

Serge becomes a drawing teacher and emulates his idol Salvador Dalí with great ambition. Finally, “Ugly Face” convinced him to stop painting and devote himself to music, which is more likely to make money. Gainsbourg takes guitar lessons from a Sinti jazz guitarist and tries his hand at chansons . With the help of Boris Vian his songs get better and the success with women like the chanson legend Juliette Gréco increases. But the really big money is still a long time coming, which is why “Ugly Face” advises him to overcome his pride and try the much more lucrative pop music. Robert Gall, music producer and father of the pop singer France Gall , is happy to take up his technical talent.

With the money there are women and parties until one day the beautiful actress Brigitte Bardot appears. They play chansons together, sing, love each other, and one day Bardot Gainsbourg inspires the chanson Je t'aime… moi non plus ; however, the recording may not be published. Bardot's husband has found out about the love affair and not only demands that the publication not be published, but he also forbids any contact. Serge, deeply affected, is now more devoted to his pain than his career. While filming the French romance film Slogan , he met the young British actress Jane Birkin . You will become lovers. Birkin moves in at Gainsbourg, changes his life and thereupon he banishes his "ugly face". He then re-recorded and released Birkin Je t'aime… moi non plus , married her and had a daughter with her, Charlotte .

But his luck doesn't seem to last long, he is becoming more and more addicted to alcohol. His provocative album Rock Around the Bunker with Nazi texts becomes a scandal. He survived a heart attack , and his dog's death affects him more severely than his father's death. There is a crisis in his marriage. So he goes to Jamaica , where he records the national anthem Marseillaise as reggae , which again causes a major scandal in France. His wife leaves him and he keeps falling. In a discotheque he gets to know the young Bambou, who gives him a child and some luck at the end of his life.

criticism

The film received positive reviews. The Rotten Tomatoes website counted 44 positive out of 61 professional reviews. The film was also largely received positively by the general public, as 66% of 15,254 users rated the film positively. On the IMDb film database , where you can submit film ratings, 2,746 users gave the film 6.8 out of 10 possible points (as of October 16, 2011).

Olivier De Bruyn said in the Paris-based weekly political magazine Le Point that the film was “more than convincing”, especially since the lead actor, Éric Elmosnino, had “a striking resemblance to Gainsbourg”. The film is also more than an “obligatory retelling of characters”. Rather, it is a film full of “imaginary delusiveness and sensitivity”.

In the French daily Le Monde , Thomas Sotinel came to the conclusion that Sfar Gainsbourg's life was only using “as a bracket” for the film and “in between a strange story, connected to reality through a few points of reference”. With the help of the excellent performances of the actors, Sfar present a character "whom he loves and knows". However, Sotinel was surprised that the last 20 years of Gainsbourg's "have been treated worse than his youth". In the end, the film degenerates into a pure episode film.

Although it is not surprising that a French legend like Gainsbourg got his own film biography and lead actor Elmosnino cut a good figure as an adult Gainsbourg "with big ears, heavy eyes, a gravel voice and constant gitanes ", criticized AO Scott in the New York Times that the film “feels superfluous” because it only “dutifully processes everything”. The film is “engaging”, but also “optically hectic and it lacks dramatic intensity”.

Kenneth Turan said in the national daily Los Angeles Times that the film was "unconventional, imaginative, if not daring" because it was a "portrait of inner creativity that seriously and playfully tries to find an artistic way telling emotional truth. "

The lexicon of international films said: “Despite playing with different styles and with different levels of reality, his life and work are largely rolled out chronologically, with various alter egos of the artist intermingling with one another. Sometimes incomprehensible without any prior knowledge of Gainsbourg's artistic profile, the film creates a slightly crafted, but very amusing homage to the bohemian "hero" Gainsbourg. Its myth is not questioned, but the film approaches it with a lot of formal imagination. "

production

  • It was the last film for actress Lucy Gordon . During post-production she committed suicide in her Paris apartment.
  • When Sfar asked Charlotte Gainsbourg about the rights to her father's songs, he made her the suggestion to take on a leading role in the film. Charlotte is said to have toyed with the idea for several months before deciding against her participation.

Awards

publication

The film celebrated its world premiere in French cinemas on January 20, 2010. On October 14, 2010 it was released in German cinemas under the title Gainsbourg - The Man Who Loved Women , after it had already been shown on September 30, 2010 at the Hamburg Film Festival . A German DVD under the title Gainsbourg - Popstar, Poet, Provokateur has been available since April 14, 2011 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Jump up ↑ Certificate of Release for Gainsbourg - The Man Who Loved Women . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2010 (PDF; test number: 124 034 K).
  2. ^ Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (2011). rottentomatoes.com, accessed October 16, 2011 .
  3. ↑ Olivier De Bruyn: Gainsbourg on lepoint.fr of January 20, 2010 (French), accessed October 16, 2011
  4. ↑ Thomas Sotinel: "Gainsbourg (vie héroïque)": la vie imaginaire de Lucien devenu Serge on lemonde.fr from January 19, 2010 (French), accessed on October 16, 2011
  5. ^ AO Scott: Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (2011) on nytimes.com from August 30, 2010 (English), accessed on October 16, 2011
  6. ↑ Kenneth Turan: Movie review: 'Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life' on latimes from September 2, 2010 (English), accessed on October 16, 2011
  7. ↑ Gainsbourg - The man who loved women. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. ^ Henry Samuel: British actress Lucy Gordon found dead in Paris flat on telegraph.co.uk of May 21, 2009 (English), accessed October 16, 2011
  9. ↑ Thomas Abeltshauser: How Charlotte Gainsbourg deals with death and loss on welt.de from March 4, 2011, accessed on December 21, 2011