Slogan - Two Disc Special Edition
Directed by Pierre Grimblat
Released: 1969
Starring: Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin, Andréa Parisy
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Studio: Cult Epics

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Serge Fabergé (played by Serge Gainsbourg) is an award-winning commercial director with a lovely wife who is about to give birth to their first child. However, he is not content. In the midst of a mid-life crisis, he meets a woman half his age named Evelyne (Jane Birkin) and starts a relationship on the side. Their whirlwind and ultimately doomed love affair escalates when he divorces his wife and they move in together. Now Serge has some competition in form of a much younger man who fights very hard for Evelyne’s affection.

Director Pierre Grimblat delivers a colorful spectacle of a film with supreme editing and a great satirical side. The fast pace holds up for quite a while before settling down but not slowing to a crawl, thank God. The minimalist storyline of two people who are destined to fall in love and break each other’s hearts is rarely dull thanks to the interesting delivery.

The inimitable Serge Gainsbourg is awesome as Serge Fabergé; although he is not the most likeable guy in the world, to say the least. He is creative and eccentric in his work but can be painfully common and banal in his life. Blatantly cheating on his pregnant wife with a woman half his age and then running off with her. Nice going, champ. But Gainsbourg is so charming and the character is so well conceived that you can’t help but be sucked into his story.

Jane Birkin breathes life into Evelyne, a young woman who can be vivacious, lovely, naïve, obvious, and sometimes quite shrill. Like her lover, she has a great deal to lose in this conspicuously doomed relationship and she is totally convinced that there is no turning back. Both she and Gainsbourg would go on to star in Antonio Margheriti’s Seven Deaths In The Cat’s Eye.

The story of Slogan is nothing new but it is told with style and attitude and features superb performances from everyone involved. The film is a pop classic with an excellent soundtrack that has aged very well. It embraces commercial culture with delight and remains entertaining even during its heavier moments. Plus, any movie that uses ‘etiolated’ in the dialogue is pretty super special.

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DVD Stuff:

The Cult Epics non-anamorphic widescreen print of Slogan looks very good though the colors seem a little flat. The French mono audio is clear with easy to read English subtitles. The feature disc contains the film’s theatrical trailer. On the extras disc are interviews with Jane Birkin and Pierre Grimblat. They are very candid about the making of the film and Birkin is especially warm and funny. When the subject turns to actor and pop music producer/pioneer Serge Gainsbourg, it strays from the making of Slogan. Also on the disc are some excellent French TV commercials from director Grimblat.

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Quotes:

"You look like holidays."