French Celebrities Bio | Requiem for Serge Gainsbourg

That the new biopic of Serge Gainsbourg’s life (Gainsbourg, Vie héroïque) has generated so much interest and, in France at least, ticket sales, is testament to the public’s enduring fascination with this most unlikely of icons.

Indeed, in France there can be few artists of the modern age who enjoy as much unbridled reverence and popular appeal in death as the poet and musician did during his eventful life.

Born Lucien Ginsburg in 1928 of Russian-Jewish parentage, his childhood was marked by the Nazi Occupation (he would later address his gold star-wearing years in the 1975 black comedy album Rock Around the Bunker) and by his early 30s he was playing in piano bars and struggling as an artist.

Turning to songwriting, success came when France Gall took his song “Poupée de cire, poupée de son” to Eurovision triumph in 1965. After further work with Gall and Françoise Hardy, it was 1969’s saucy song “Je t’aime, moi non plus” – censored in some countries – with future wife Jane Birkin that brought international renown.

Although his early musical style owed a lot to chanson and Boris Vian, he would experiment greatly over the years, flirting with jazz, pop, psychedelia, rock, reggae and electronica.

Meanwhile away from the studio, he had a way with glamorous women, who clearly found his earthiness and poetic spirit compelling. Today, the very mention of his name conjures an image of a louche chanteur, a Gauloise chain-smoker with an eye for the ladies and a fondness for a drink or three.

During his latter years he was on French TV regularly, enjoying his caricature role as an eccentric, drunken provocateur. He died in 1991, his artistic legacy somehow intact – in France, at least. His star still shines brightly almost twenty years since his passing and clearly there was more to him than meets the eye, a rare charisma.

Serge gainsbourg: La recette de l'Amour Fou - you tube video