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    Gainsbourg

    Well, I thought this was wonderful, even if 1/3 of my cinema-visiting party thought it was too "fanboyish".

    The actors chosen to play Gainsbourg, Bardot, Birkin and Gall are astonishingly accurate, and I love the touch of magic realism in the beak-nosed id/devil creature that follows Gainsbourg around. (Apparently the film's based on a graphic novel, which would explain that.)

    The narrative is fairly straightforward and familiar - cocky, impudent immigrant kid struggles with his Jewishness and ugliness, reinvents himself as a ladies' man, writes amazing songs, shags some of the most beautiful women alive, scandalises France and smokes a lot of cigarettes - but it's handled brilliantly.

    It's inspired me to spend all morning listening to Serge's finest. My current favourite is the ridiculous "Comic Strip" ("Sh-bam... Pow... Plop... WHIZZZ!!!")

    The only real disappointment is that the Whitney Houston incident is omitted, but that's probably a bigger deal to anglophone viewers than it is to French audiences.

    #2
    Gainsbourg

    Nice post, SR. The alter ego evil doll kind of reminds me of Sesame Street's count von Count...



    [IMG]http://api.ning.com/files/nhHDy1eLksUgF3ZxEdR19W7KTtsyY9W7gvpDJ5qQ-17BabMigCCVBsV6zb*fpwfN18Xx1ku79yDfn6nhMlSBXtpz2Cu 6mnLJ/08_CountVonCount.jpg[/IMG]

    I haven't seen the movie yet partly because of that fanboyish side and partly because I'm not a huge Sfaer fan (graphic artist and director) but there is still more than enough interest in a project like this to warrant watching it, it should be a great torrent/DVD candidate. The cast does look great, the late Lucy Gordon alone is worth watching this movie.

    Gainsbourg was a very talented musician, but also a huge dork who hid this aspect behind that Gainsbarre alter ego. He appeared in a number of films, where he was invariably fairly awkward. He's left a tremendous deal of great music behind, though a good half of that should be credited to the incredibly talented collaborators with whom he had the good judgement to associate. "Melody Nelson" (his best album) really is more of a Jean-Claude Vannier album, something that becomes more clear when one familiarizes himself with the body of work of both JCV and Gainsbourg.

    The early pieces of SG were facilitated by Alain Goraguer, another immense French soundtrack/library musician (notably famous for doing the amazing soundtrack of the 74 franco-Czech sci-fi animated movie "La Planete Sauvage"). If you liked Melody Nelson, you should seek out the soundtracks Gainsbourg did with Vannier and Michel Colombier (Le Danger, Cannabis, Slogan, La Horse,...) The Cannabis soundtrack was reissued a couple of years ago, and "Les annees Psychedeliques" is a good recent compilation.

    On a related note, Gainsbourg was prominently featured in a 1969 film, Les Chemins de Katmandou both as an actor (playing a very evil art smugler character) and as the soundtrack artist (along with Vannier). the film starred Jane Birkin in the role of a flower child headed for Kathmandu heroin hell. The film is a bit dated but the period elements and soundtrack (not available anywhere) are great, and the setting and scenery of late 60s Kathmandu is really fantastic. The plot lines and story is actually fairly close to the reality of that scene, which is very well captured in one of the most enthralling autobiographies I have ever read, Charles Duchossoy's Flash ou le Grand Voyage, which besides being a great adventure travel book has been desribed as being one of the most definitive accounts of the drug experience. Unfortunately the book is only available in french, spanish and italian as of now.

    Les Chemins de Katmandou film is not available on DVD, but it's streamable here, for now:

    http://www.ovguide.com/movies_tv/les_chemins_de_katmandou.htm



    (quick edit: the film is in french, with no subtitles - click below the myspace icon on "Scalde - Les chemins de Katmandou Video by Ricochet Production ..." to stream)

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      #3
      Gainsbourg

      Thanks, some interesting future viewing/listening there. Yeah, I love Melody Nelson (I went to a thing at the Barbican a couple of years ago where Vannier conducted an orchestra playing that soundtrack, with guest vocalists like Gruff Rhys and Jarvis Cocker), and the music from Cannabis is immense. Sampled, gloriously in my opinion, by Goldie Lookin' Chain...

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        #4
        Gainsbourg

        Linus, you really are just about my favourite poster on here. I'd go as far as saying you are a sort of Gallic TeBe.

        And, Simon, thankyou for your link which has provided me with an Anthem For The Divorced Man.

        Just discovered with interest this afternoon about your 80s clubnight in Brighton. One day I will be there to catch the underpants - it sounds like the perfect night out.

        In the meantime, I still have to get to see this film. "Les Initials BB" still rates in my top 3 of all time, I'd say.

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          #5
          Gainsbourg

          Cheers Logan, much flattered! Looking forward to sharing a beer with you down the road.

          SR I'm really envious about the Vannier show, I missed the Paris leg of this tour by 48hrs. I think Cocker might have been instrumental in putting this together, kudos to him.

          Looking back at my post above, it's unreasonably harsh on Gainsbourg, who still is one of the greatest. It's really nice to see he's being appreciated beyond the Hexagone, he would have gotten quite a kick at this, but it's too bad that the other great talents he was associated with haven't gotten their due.

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