In 1969 Serge Gainsbourg starred in a French film called ‘Slogan’. It was the story of a film director played by Gainsbourg named Serge Fabergé who leaves his pregnant wife Françoise to attend an advertising award festival in Venice. There, he meets Evelyne, a young British woman played by Jane Birkin and initiates an affair. Evelyne eventually leaves him for another man. Gainsbourg and Birkin met on this film which led to one of the most extraordinarily successful and wildly fashionable romantic/work pairings of the century. Above is the trailer for the film as well as an interview with the two stars shot shortly after the film came out in which they recount meeting, falling for each other etc. Birkin is impossibly beautiful. Gainsbourg is charismatic and a stylish mess. During the interview Gainsbourg says that as an actor this was the first time he was satisfied with his performance because ‘the director let me be myself’. Who was the director? For a moment I thought it might have been Gainsbourg himself–he was known to be wickedly misleading and self-referential when the occasion arose. But no. He was referring to a man named Pierre Grimblat, a filmmaker I’d never heard of. Grimblat seems to have worked mostly in French television, more often as a producer than a director. I know one thing: if I’m dissatisfied with my work, my pseudonym will no longer be Alan Smithee. ‘Directed by Serge Faberge’ is much more stylish…