Serge Gainsbourg Portrayed as Larger Than Life by Movie Reviewers on Creators.com

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Serge Gainsbourg Portrayed as Larger Than Life

All countries relish in their own tall tales. Britons boast of the legend of King Arthur, the only man who could extract the mighty sword Excalibur from its stony prison. Americans exalt fictitious giants, such as Paul Bunyan, and characterizations of real-life heroes, such as George Washington's inability to tell a lie.

France has a unique folkloric hero in Serge Gainsbourg. The controversial singer and artist forged a churlish path in the 1950s-1980s, romancing and recording with an array of stunning women. But since then, fellow musicians and Francophiles have lifted the man once known as Lucien Ginsburg to godlike status.

"Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life" is a curious, beautiful feting of the hedonistic auteur. Part biopic and part fantasy film, it proclaims to be less about Gainsbourg, the sex-crazed and more about a remarkable Jew who overcame menacing anti-Semitism. It follows little Lucien's life in Nazi-occupied France, where his fearless personality makes him a hit with the ladies (much, much older ladies. His peers are more dismissive). From painter to pop provocateur, the former Ginsburg begins to rise in the musical ranks.

Writer/director Joann Sfar, predominately known for his graphic novel "The Rabbi's Cat," cobbles together a Michel-Gondry-meets-Todd-Haynes style to pay homage to the revered Frenchman. The film becomes one of the most surrealist pieces based on a real life, with rotund and spindly puppetry tailing Eric Elmosnino as he cavorts onscreen as Gainsbourg. It's hard not to see a bit of comedic actor Fred Armisen in this leading man, but beyond that, Elmosnino is transcendent, refined and cool as the mythic fellow he's embodying.

This movie is as much of a drama as it is a musical, with more than 30 of the artist's songs weaving together the narrative.

(All of which were re-recorded to divine pitch and presentation.) Sfar balances the bawdy with the brilliant in staging duets between Elmosnino and Gainsbourg's gang of ingenues. Especially luscious is the romance between the hero and coquette Brigette Bardot (Laetitia Casta). Her mewling about in naught but a towel is cheeky but artful.

The bulk of the cast does an ace job, even the ones not shimmying down to their skivvies. Surprisingly, two of the most engaging characters turn out to be Gainsbourg's Russian-Jewish parents, Joseph and Olga (played respectively by Razvan Vasilescu and Dinara Drukarova). Their harried reaction to their son's dating the starlet Bardot is priceless.

Why is Gainsbourg particularly heroic? Because, as the movie so often reminds, he is not a conventionally attractive man, but he still gets the ladies. He gets his way on the radio even with his sordid lyrics. He succeeds profoundly with the help of an ever-present muse (represented by a lanky specter voiced by Doug Jones). The je ne sais quoi that propped up his creativity and lurid way of thinking takes on a Mephistopheles form. Like the devilish bluesman Robert Johnson before him, it is suggested, here, that Gainsbourg dealt with dark forces to gain his notoriety. Sfar's piling of superhuman attributes onto his protagonist could be seen as a flaw, but "A Heroic Life" never fawns fully.

"Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life." Not Rated. Running time: 2 hours, 2 minutes. 3.5 stars.

To find out more about Melissa Bobbitt and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.