DVD: Gainsbourg, For retail & rental (Optimum)

In Britain, Serge G is known as a kitsch singer and dipsomaniac.

In France, he is a national treasure. And so the French director Joann Sfar feels the story is sufficiently known not to have to provide a typical biopic. Instead, we get an impressionistic portrait of the charm, the sleaze and the alter egos – played by grotesque puppets. It is a film that walks the tightrope of imaginative quirkiness, and just about manages not to fall off.