LimeWire Music Blog

How much can you tell about a French-language film from a trailer without subtitles? As it turns out, quite a bit. The first previews for the forthcoming biopic Serge Gainsbourg: A Life Heroic have cropped up, and guess what? I can’t understand a damn thing that’s being said in them. But I can tell you this: It seems the film will tackle the story of the famous and controversial musician’s entire life, from childhood through death. And it will involve saturated colors, lots of cigarettes… and, most of all, a cast of shapely women in various stages of undress. (Hence the “NSFW” warning.)

Here’s what The Playlist tells us about its impressive casting:

Eric Elmosnino plays Gainsbourg, Lucy Gordon (who committed suicide earlier this year, RIP) plays his famous chanteuse wife, Jane Birkin (the mother of Charlotte Gainsbourg), former French Supermodel Laetitia Casta stars as Brigitte Bardot, Anna Mouglalis (”Coco Chanel & Stravinsky”) is playing elegant chanson singer Juliette Gréco, actress Sara Forestier (”Perfume: The Story of a Murderer”) will play mousy, French yé-yé singer France Gall and French/Chinese actress Mylène Jampanoï will portray singer actress, Bambou, who was Gainsbourg’s muse and girlfriend near the end of his life.

The Playlist also worries that, despite early talk of director Joann Sfar (a comic-book artist) incorporating digital animation into Serge, the film will turn out to be nothing but a traditional, ho-hum, music-drugs-girls-death biopic. And while that would be a shame, I have to admit the trailer makes the movie look lush enough (and I enjoy Gainsbourg so much) that I wouldn’t entirely mind.