Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (2011)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: It might be thinly written and messily made, but Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is also appropriately glamorous and intense -- and powerfully led by a gripping performance from Erik Elmosnino.
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Movie Info
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Cast
as Serge Gainsbourg
as Jane Birkin
as Brigitte Bardot
as La Gueule
as Bambou
as Juliette Greco
as France Gall
as Lucien Ginsburg
as Boris Vian
as Fréhel
as Joseph Ginsburg
as Music Producer
as Lucky Sarcelles
as Elisabeth
as Georges Brassens
as Natalie Wood
as The Model
as Headmaster
as Gypsy Guitarist
as Judith
as Les Frères Jacques
as France Gall's Father
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Critic Reviews for Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life
All Critics (80) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (58) | Rotten (22) | DVD (3)
It's a comic-strip version of one man's life and times, but it's tres cool.
While the movie's on a roll, it's zesty, engaging and frisky.
In short, Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is a charmer.
French pop star Serge Gainsbourg was as much iconoclast as icon, so it's fitting that this fanciful biopic is both affectionate and irreverent.
Alas, "Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life" loses steam and grows more perfunctory as it wears on.
It's the story of a genius with no moral sense and no interests beyond sensuality. The catchy, insinuating music can only carry you so far.
Audience Reviews for Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life
This charming biopic about Serge Gainsbourg is definitely not special, and I really don't know what is so heroic about him, but it is a delight to see how he wrote some of his songs and met the women of his life, in a surreal and stylish depiction of part of his existence.
Super Reviewer
Slightly surrealistic biopic covering the life of a French folk/rock icon, the hard-drinking, hard-smoking Lothario Serge Gainsbourg, with a scary puppet doppelganger on hand representing his inner demons. The experimentalism and some dead-on portrayals of Gainsboug's glamorous lovers---Juliette Greco, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin---make for a lively tribute to the rakish singer's rebel spirit.
Super Reviewer
I could care less about the life of Gainsbourg and this movie really didn't change my mind. It mainly just follows the exact same formula of The Doors, but just with a far less interesting subject. It's almost baffling how they could get away with telling such a mirrored story when I'm sue the two people couldn't have been different. Sometimes this looks like a filmed play, due to the odd lighting and desire to always frame the action in exactly the same way. It also seemed to drag for a ridiculously long time for being just a 2hr movie. I'm not someone who is a die-hard fan of French film-making and this seemed to posses all the traits I don't care for. The necessity for imaginary puppets, goofy narrative breaks and oddly paced scenes didn't help me enjoy this anymore. The one thing I did happen to enjoy was all the beautiful women, but that's hardly something you can compliment the movie itself for. Eric Elmosnino really doesn't do anything interesting here; he just sort'v mopes his way through the movie and doesn't even become interesting until the very last stretch of Gainsbourg's life. I'm sure there will be people that eat this up and just love this biopic, but I really found it to be pointless and terribly executed.
Super Reviewer
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life Quotes
| Serge Gainsbourg: | [spoken to Jane] I'm trying to resist my desire to kiss you. |
| Serge Gainsbourg: | [singing] We were in love. As long as the song lasted. |
| Serge Gainsbourg: | No, it's pretty when you cry. |