Taking the best from La vie en rose and Amélie, renowned comic-book artist Joann Sfar’s Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is a completely original take on one of France’s greatest mavericks, the illustrious and infamous Jewish singer-songwriter, Serge Gainsbourg (Eric Elmosnino). Born Lucien Ginsburg to Russian-Jewish parents, Sfar follows him from his precocious childhood in Nazi-occupied Paris, to his beginnings as small time jazz musician and finally pop superstar. Along the way he romances many of the era’s most beautiful women, including Juliette Greco (Anna Mouglalis), Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta), and Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon). Employing a witty surrealistic style and a soundtrack that includes many of the musician’s greatest hits, Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is a quintessential time capsule to 1960s Paris.

• Winner – Best Actor (Eric Elmosnino) – 2011 Cesar Awards
• Winner – Best First Film (Joann Sfar) – 2011 Cesar Awards
• Winner – Best Actor (Eric Elmosnino) – 2010 Tribeca Film Festival

►On Friday, December 16 only, the screening is accompanied by a short film and a reception in the museum galleries

Gainsbourg: Exterior Night (Gainsbourg: Extérieur Nuit)
Directed by Patrice Vanoni - In person!

(France, 1984, 28 min., French with English translation provided)
Friday, December 16, 8:15 pm
A holiday reception follows

Patrice Vanoni, cultural attaché at the Consulate General of France in Houston, presents this short documentary to complement the MFAH premiere of the biopic Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life.

Patrice Vanoni’s early career included working in French film and television. In this portrait produced for the TV channel TF1, the camera crew follows the rambunctious Serge Gainsbourg in a night on the town, from dinner at La Tour d’Argent  to various clubs and hotspots—including Le Bar du Ritz, a clandestine poker room with his beautiful date, Bambou. Evoking the glamour and excitement of Paris after hours, the film is a candid and personal portrait of the legendary performer.

Vanoni was a journalist and bureau chief for many years. He has traveled to various countries, including conflict-ridden areas where he covered stories firsthand as a war correspondent. He was also broadcasting attaché in Mumbai, India, known for Bollywood, one of the world’s largest centers of film production and the largest film producer in India. Vanoni also worked in Africa for 17 years as a journalist and bureau chief for TF1, the largest TV station in France and Europe. He had been working as a journalist at the TF1 news desk for about seven years when the documentary Extérieur Nuit was filmed. Extérieur Nuit is an expression used in cinema when shooting night scenes. The documentary was produced as part of a weekly TV program aired on TF1’s nightly news and special reports. The show aimed at documenting the life of celebrities with a predilection for scandalous and dissolute behavior such as Gainsbourg, who went out only at night, when he thought people were more true to themselves.

Cosponsored by the Consulate General of France in Houston and the Alliance Française of Houston.