Valse de Melody - Serge Gainsbourg (1971)
Joseph and Olia Ginsburg left Russia in 1919 to live in Paris, in order to escape Bolshevism. Joseph is a cabaret pianist and Olia is a singer. They have a first son who dies at an early age of a disease. Then they have a daughter: Jacqueline, in 1926; and finally, fraternal twins: Liliane and Lucien, in 1928.
War years were very hard for Lucien as he is forced to wear the yellow star of the jews. The whole family left Paris and went to hide in the countryside under a fake name. After the war, when the family returned to Paris, Lucien has very bad results at school, and quickly give up.
He spend some years in the Beaux-Arts school, and give up. Then, he lives of small jobs like drawing or singing teacher, and give up.
He become a piano-bar crooner singing in many casinos in Normandie, and in Paris. The revelation comes when he hear the singer Boris Vian and his cynical, provocative, and funny texts. He sold only 1500 units of his first solo album “gainsbourg Confidentiel”. He then decided: “Je vais me lancer dans l’alimentaire et m’acheter une Rolls”.
After many years of success, he goes from Serge Gainsbourg to Gainsbarre. Night clubs, alcohol and night life starts killing him. He become the, drunk and not shaved, cursed poet that we all remember.
The epic story of Gainsbourg ends on March 2nd, 1991 after his fifth heart attack.
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Serge Gainsbourg Official Website
Serge Gainsbourg Un-Official Website
Further information on Wikipedia [en]
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