###### Might contain spoilers ######### I personally found the portrayal of decay one of the most impressive features in the movie. The character's fall naturally depicts the transition of the haute-couture from the war-years, which was yet a reminiscence of Golden Era, yet with a little less social exclusion, towards the chaotic and disturbing culture the re-building process in the post-war years.
You can see it first in the transition of the protagonist's manners, which change from subliminally provocative in childhood towards openly ironic during the time spent with Brigitte Bardot - every attempt to remain sincere and "ernst" during this time must have been felt as a facre - , towards unreflected vulgar anti-everything proclamations you see in the re-make of the sex-driven song and the years after.
Also, you can see it in the changing clothing, which slowly progresses and finally finds its point of no return when Gainsborg finds his British wife. First of all, it's the inter-national coupling, which of course introduces compromises on all sides, and which also makes him send away his visage, which is basically a symbol of his genius overall. What he sends away is the normed cultural knowledge he gained as an aspiring French intellectual. Accepting to embrace the then more inter-national culture, he becomes basically a perverse anti-hero which resembles the Proustian portray of Bloch. While he learns and transcends the inter-disciplinary approach towards the new culture, he becomes a torn-apart individual and ultimately an outsider for both the French and the British society, in which he lives, becoming truly an international cultural outlaw. (The first hint at his outlaw status is the rejection of his song written for Brigitte) So, his clothes change towards what you would think a typical drug-addicted rock-n-roll star outfit and has not the slightest scent of culture and style left. He resembles a little bit the latest pictures found on Dylan.
But most interestingly is the attempt to relate this final breakdown with the his experience of WW2, something that is dominantly present in the scenes where he performs the Marseillese. You see that subconsciously, he still is haunted by his past, and while his embracement of earlier haute-couture allowed him to feel at home and at peace somehow with his country and intellectual background, the emergence of a new form of pop culture - loud clubs where electronic music is played, an Asian looking girl friend, a ton of Garbage art on his estate -, you can see that this last piece of hope and divinity, which he found in the art of chanson writing, falls apart and leaves him with nothing left than ruins.
The entire biopic hence deals somehow with the cultural breakdown of the entire society due to the rebuilding process of post-war Europe, and the massive dilution of cultural products across borders, and the end of self-consciousness it introduces with itself.
The last dignity, initially spared by the war experience and conserved in the intellectual networks of Paris, vanishes. And even worse, he probably experienced to have contributed to this mess. When the Asian looking girl comes straight to the point asking if he wanted to "fuck" her, while he was still trying to frame his intentions more elaborately as a gentleman, he must have ultimately realized that everything was over. He was not even part of the outlaw movement anymore. He was just some random individual that was perceived as following its most primal instincts. At that point, he say "NO. Don't you dare to leave." Another point of no return.
Yes, because there he was. An alcoholic, post-intellectual and vulgar individual. What was left to do, but to escape everything and forget about what he once deemed important by making another baby and becoming a family man after all. The rage and violence have vanished in the final scenes, simply because anything that he could rage about was dead.
Apart from that, as already mentioned, the film was catchy, atmospheric and somewhat epic.
You can see it first in the transition of the protagonist's manners, which change from subliminally provocative in childhood towards openly ironic during the time spent with Brigitte Bardot - every attempt to remain sincere and "ernst" during this time must have been felt as a facre - , towards unreflected vulgar anti-everything proclamations you see in the re-make of the sex-driven song and the years after.
Also, you can see it in the changing clothing, which slowly progresses and finally finds its point of no return when Gainsborg finds his British wife. First of all, it's the inter-national coupling, which of course introduces compromises on all sides, and which also makes him send away his visage, which is basically a symbol of his genius overall. What he sends away is the normed cultural knowledge he gained as an aspiring French intellectual. Accepting to embrace the then more inter-national culture, he becomes basically a perverse anti-hero which resembles the Proustian portray of Bloch. While he learns and transcends the inter-disciplinary approach towards the new culture, he becomes a torn-apart individual and ultimately an outsider for both the French and the British society, in which he lives, becoming truly an international cultural outlaw. (The first hint at his outlaw status is the rejection of his song written for Brigitte) So, his clothes change towards what you would think a typical drug-addicted rock-n-roll star outfit and has not the slightest scent of culture and style left. He resembles a little bit the latest pictures found on Dylan.
But most interestingly is the attempt to relate this final breakdown with the his experience of WW2, something that is dominantly present in the scenes where he performs the Marseillese. You see that subconsciously, he still is haunted by his past, and while his embracement of earlier haute-couture allowed him to feel at home and at peace somehow with his country and intellectual background, the emergence of a new form of pop culture - loud clubs where electronic music is played, an Asian looking girl friend, a ton of Garbage art on his estate -, you can see that this last piece of hope and divinity, which he found in the art of chanson writing, falls apart and leaves him with nothing left than ruins.
The entire biopic hence deals somehow with the cultural breakdown of the entire society due to the rebuilding process of post-war Europe, and the massive dilution of cultural products across borders, and the end of self-consciousness it introduces with itself.
The last dignity, initially spared by the war experience and conserved in the intellectual networks of Paris, vanishes. And even worse, he probably experienced to have contributed to this mess. When the Asian looking girl comes straight to the point asking if he wanted to "fuck" her, while he was still trying to frame his intentions more elaborately as a gentleman, he must have ultimately realized that everything was over. He was not even part of the outlaw movement anymore. He was just some random individual that was perceived as following its most primal instincts. At that point, he say "NO. Don't you dare to leave." Another point of no return.
Yes, because there he was. An alcoholic, post-intellectual and vulgar individual. What was left to do, but to escape everything and forget about what he once deemed important by making another baby and becoming a family man after all. The rage and violence have vanished in the final scenes, simply because anything that he could rage about was dead.
Apart from that, as already mentioned, the film was catchy, atmospheric and somewhat epic.