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The life and death of a French cultural hero have been recreated in a new biopic based on the brilliant but doomed musician Serge Gainsbourg.

Known abroad chiefly for the steamy sex-ballad Je T'aime, Moi Non Plus - featuring his lover and future wife Jane Birkin on heavy breathing duties - Gainsbourg has an almost mythic status in France, where successive generations continue to revere him as the ultimate rebel artist.

Until now no film-maker has dared to take on the challenge of portraying so adored a national figure - and the task has finally fallen to a man whose main trade is not film-making but bande dessinée, or comic strips.

Serge Gainsbourg - une vie heroique (Serge Gainsbourg - a heroic life) is directed by Joann Sfar, who is well-known in France and abroad for The Rabbi's Cat series of comic books.