Serge Gainsbourg: A new animated documentary questions the behaviours of ‘genius’

Biopics about musicians are a dime a dozen, but it seems that the genre is getting a necessary shake-up.  

Whether it’s Morgan Neville’s animated film Piece By Piece, which premieres on the last night of the London Film Festival and follows the life of Pharrell Williams in Lego form, or Michael Gracey’s Robbie Williams biopic Better Man, which has the ex-Take That member and ‘Angels’ singer portrayed by a monkey on screen, more music biopics are taking ambitious left turns to avoid audience fatigue.  

Now, following the success of Joann Sfar's 2010 film Gainsbourg, vie héroïque, in which Éric Elmosnino played the legendary French singer, a new animated documentary based on an interview with Serge Gainsbourg two years before his death is on its way.  

The animation film, titled Gainsbourg: Rue de Verneuil, is presented as part of the International Audiovisual Market, taking place in Italy alongside the Rome International Film Festival, and will be based on an interview conducted by journalist Christian Fevret for the French magazine Les Inrockuptibles. The discussion was one of Gainsbourg’s last before he died of a heart attack at the age of 62 on 2 March 1991. 

In the lengthy exchange, the singer talked about his childhood, the Second World War and anti-Semitism, as well as his relationship with art and fame. 

According to Variety, Gilles Cayatte, known for directing the documentaries Justin Trudeau, l'autre Amérique (2018), Erdogan l'ivresse du pouvoir (2016) and L'Ascension et la Chute de Carlos Ghosn (2020), will direct from a script he co-wrote with Daniela de Felice.

Cyril Houplain will be artistic director, drawing in his unique biro style. 

Logical’s Frédéric Fiore and The Jokers Lab’s Carole Mirabello are producing, with Mirabello telling Variety that the long-gestating feature harks back to the late-2000s, when she met Fevret. 

“Fast forward to 2016, and he handed me the entire collection of audio tapes, suggesting they might be the foundation for a film,” said Mirabello. “The conversation was so personal and raw, though, that I struggled to envision how to bring it to life through conventional archival footage.” 

She added: “It wasn’t until 2023 that inspiration struck: the story would be best told through animation, capturing the unique encounter between a young journalist and an iconic artist.” 

The interview tapes - more than 11 hours, including many “sensitive inner reflections” that had never before been published – presented a dilemma for Houplain, who wanted to find “a graphic style and visual material that are intrinsic, organically and sensorially charged with the Gainsbourg spirit from the very first glance.” 

His ballpoint pen style was deemed the “ideal vector for transcending and expressing all the complexity and range of emotions that run through this interview and its protagonist.” 

Indeed, the iconic musician had a long career that was marked by public scandals and tumultuous love affairs.  

However, the creators insist that their aim is not to judge Gainsbourg, but to ask questions about the nature of genius and the behaviours that accompany it.  

Cayatte shared with Variety: “We are not putting this man on trial. This is not the objective. It’s easy, in this day and age, to judge and to sentence. I think we tried to ask the question in a different way.” 

He added: “Maybe the film will hopefully ask the question if it’s acceptable to go through all this and be called a genius. Is being a genius good enough to behave like this?” 

No release date for the documentary has yet been announced. 

Additional sources • Variety