Fair and Balanced: The Other Side of the Coin

In the time-honored journalistic tradition of remaining fair and balanced, we've decided to discuss this highly-critical review of Joann Sfar's Gainsbourg (vie héroïque).  For the most part, everything we've seen or heard in the media has been in the form of celebratory congratulations for Sfar's "fantastic fairy-tale" of Serge Gainsbourg.

However, Philippe Bilger from Marianne2.fr is not "drinking the kool-aid" so-to-speak, saying Sfar's story is not successful and that, basically, he's just in love with the idea or "existence of Gainsbourg".  He also says Sfar's attempt to illustrate the double personality of Gainsbourg with La Gueule, calling the character "a puppet that accompanies (Gainsbourg) too often and too long."

Bilger does note that the only positive things saving the film are the performance of Éric Elmosnino as Serge Gainsbourg and the fact that Laetitia Casta aesthetically resembles Brigitte Bardot while "miraculously, is not too unbearable as an actress".  Ouch!

To read Bilger's full trashing of Gainsbourg (vie héroïque) in French, cliquez ici, and in English, click here.  For those of you who've seen the film, what do you think? Do you agree? Is this man crazy? Leave your comments below!