MovieChat Forums > Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque) (2010) Discussion > Sfar's take on France Gall

Sfar's take on France Gall

posted 12 years ago by moilane
4 replies | jump to latest

Did anybody else notice how offensive the otherwise inventive director was towards this sixties teenage yé-yé singer? Remember the two-minute bit about Serge meeting France Gall and her dad-cum-manager? And how she was supposed to have been this well-nigh brain-damaged bimbo who had absolutely no singing voice at all?

It's not even about the fact that in reality she actually had quite a versatile and fresh voice, albeit raw and unbridled, an acquired taste to be sure. Neither was she a great philosopher but just an innocent teenager with a normal teenager's concerns about fashion and boys and whatnot - but definitely not such a downright retard as proposed by Sfar.

I know I know, your first gut-level explanation might be the same as offered by the director in general: that the film wasn't even supposed to be about biographical facts but a stylized fairytale about Serge's own take on reality.

But in fact, therein does lie the scene's biggest failure; the talentless bimbo shown in the film wasn't even something Serge himself thought of France. It's been well-documented that he happened to have high respect for her professionalism in the studio, even gratitude for her being the first-ever singer to take his songs to the top of the charts, after many years of commercial struggle both as a performer and a songwriter himself. He even admitted France saved his career.

Such a pity -- I'm actually a big fan of Sfar's comics, but I'm also a big fan of France Gall's sixties output, and this sort of uneducated ..well, slander ;) makes it very difficult for me enjoy the rest of the film either.

[–] zwot 12 years ago

I was quite struck by this scene. I'm not as familiar with France Gall as you are - going into the film I knew that she'd sang Les Sucettes, but I've never heard or seen her perform that song or any others. (In fact, I've only heard Gainsbourg himself sing Les Sucettes, on that infamous first album with Jane Birkin.) What struck me about the France Gall scene was how comically bad was her performance of "Baby Pop." Her singing was harsh and off-key, but even worse was the way she danced like a clumsy oaf while her blissfully ignorant father smiled indulgently.

It's so ridiculously bad that I think we're supposed to recognize that we're not seeing it as it really was but are instead seeing it from the jaundiced perspective of Gainsbourg. He wrote "Baby Pop" purely for commercial reasons, he was not proud of the song and he had no respect for those who enjoyed it. All of that would have fed into his recurrent feelings of self-loathing. I think what we saw in the France Gall scene was Gainsbourg projecting his feelings about himself onto her.

[–] moilane 12 years ago

Interesting perspective indeed, thanks for sharing.

But even if Serge hated "Baby Pop", it's still an odd and unfair decision from the director to let that one song stain the whole image of a singer that Serge did respect in real life. Especially as usually Serge was a self-professed proud turncoat; under attack from his old serious Left Bank chanson cronies he did defend his decision to suddenly start writing simpler yé-yé songs for teen audiences, and not only for the financial aspect but to prove that it was possible to write hip and musically adventurous songs within that underappreciated genre as well.

Serge wrote something like eleven songs for France Gall, most of which he was proud of. I wonder why Sfar chose the one he seemingly hated?

[–] zwot 12 years ago

You make a good point. As someone who previously knew almost nothing about France Gall, I certainly came away with an unfavorable image of her upon watching this film. Fortunately, after posting my comment last week I googled her and watched a few videos on youtube. Indeed, she was not fairly represented by her portrayal in this film!

In fact, I'm not sure now if it's even correct to say Gainsbourg hated the "Baby Pop" song he composed. That was my assumption based upon the film, but the film also portrayed that song as the first one he wrote for her. I've since learned that he wrote several songs for her in the two years preceding "Baby Pop," including the song that won Eurovision in 1965. So my assumption apparently has no basis in fact.

I still think that scene portrays Gainsbourg projecting his self-loathing on Gall but you're right, it's certainly not fair to her. Maybe that's what makes the metaphor work well. His self-hate wasn't fair to himself either.

By the way, you might get a good laugh at this video of Les Sucettes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-iysdFu_TQ

I'm sure the sexually suggestive scenes were added in post-production, without Gall knowing. I can only imagine her mortification the first time she saw the finished production!

[–] bostonfilmfan 12 years ago

Agree with everything said above. There must be some mystery to this, some inside joke maybe, or an attempt to get even with poor Gall for something?