For the French, Serge Gainsbourg is considered as much an untouchable legend as Edith Piaf. But given the success of recent French biopics, Joann Sfar was willing to try.

Based on Sfar’s own bande dessinée (graphic novel), Gainsbourg begins with the young Lucien Ginsberg –a precocious child, who hates playing the piano and starts his artistic career drawing lewd cartoons for his young classmates. Later, when Ginsberg becomes Gainsbourg and abandons painting, he finds success as a songwriter and profits from the freewheeling changes in the society of the 1960s, falling for his muses Juliette Gréco, Brigitte Bardot, and Jane Birkin along the way. Despite considerable success, he never quite conquered his insecurities, and Sfar creatively represents how Gainsbourg was dogged by la gueule (the ugly face) all his life.

Gainsbourg is as brave, occasionally as obnoxious, and definitely as captivating as its subject matter. Eric Elmosnino certainly captures Gainsbourg’s flaws as well as his charms, but it is the women who stand out here – Anna Mouglalis as Gréco, Laetitia Casta as Bardot, and the wonderful Lucy Gordon as Jane Birkin. The film is dedicated to Gordon, whose promising career was sadly cut short when she took her own life during post production.